Keyword match
40%
How many of the JD's ranked keywords appear in your resume — across bullets, skills, certifications, and experience descriptions. Counts semantic matches ("PostgreSQL" matches a JD asking for "Postgres") not just exact strings.
Home/ATS Checker
Free ATS resume checker — match score + missing keywords.
Paste a job description. Upload your resume. Get a Resume Match Score (0–100) and the exact keywords your resume is missing — in under 30 seconds. No signup, no email, no credit card.
Honest about what we do: this scores how well your resume matches a specific JD. We don't claim to "beat" any specific ATS — Workday, Greenhouse, and iCIMS are closed systems we can't verify against. What we can verify: the keywords, skills, and signals a recruiter looks for in the first 60 seconds.
The Working Tool
Score your resume against this JD.
Paste both, hit the button. Score + breakdown + missing keywords in under 30 seconds. PDF/DOCX upload and bullet rewrites are in the full /tailor flow.
0 characters · paste experience, skills, and education sections.
0 characters · include requirements, responsibilities, and nice-to-haves.
Free · score + missing keywords · no signup
Background
What an ATS actually does.
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software employers use to receive, store, and search through job applications. The big names — Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Lever, Taleo — are used at most large enterprises. Most companies you apply to use some kind of ATS.
The myth most resume tools sell is that the ATS is a bouncer with a strict list, and your job is to slip past it with the right keywords. The reality is more boring and more important: an ATS is a database. It stores applications. It surfaces results when a recruiter searches.
The decision-maker is the recruiter, almost always. They open the ATS, type a search like python AND postgres AND intern, and skim the results. Your resume's job is to surface in that search and to read well in the 6 seconds the recruiter spends deciding whether to keep going.
That's why our score isn't a single "will this pass an ATS" verdict — that's not the right question. The right question is: does your resume show up in the searches a recruiter is going to run for this specific role? That's what match-against-JD measures.
The 6 components
How the Resume Match Score is calculated.
The total score is a weighted sum of six components. The weights aren't arbitrary — they reflect what actually moves a resume from "ignored" to "callback."
Required skills coverage
20%
Whether the JD's must-have tools, certifications, or platforms appear on your resume at all. For nursing this means BLS/ACLS/RN; for marketing it's HubSpot/GA4/Meta Ads; for engineering it's CAD/ANSYS/MATLAB. Missing one of these is the single most common cause of a low score.
Format quality
15%
Whether your resume parses cleanly. Single column, plain bullet markers, no tables for layout, no headers/footers with critical info, contact info on the first line. Format quality issues mostly come from heavily-designed templates that look great visually but fail in ATS parsers.
Quantification
10%
What percentage of your bullets contain a number. Recruiters skim for metrics; bullets without them read as filler. Even one or two real numbers per bullet block lifts this score noticeably.
Section completeness
10%
Whether the standard sections are present and clearly labeled — Experience, Education, Skills at minimum. For credential-heavy sectors (nursing, accounting, education) we also check for Certifications.
Length
5%
One page for student/entry-level resumes is the strong default. Two pages is acceptable for graduate students with publications or career-changers. Less than 200 words is a red flag; more than 900 words on a student resume usually means the candidate is padding.
Reading the score
Why the same resume scores differently on different jobs.
The score measures match between your resume and a specific JD, not the absolute quality of your resume. The same resume can score 88 on one job posting and 62 on another because the postings ask for different tools and keywords.
That's the whole reason this product exists. A generic "is my resume good?" score is much less useful than "is my resume good for this job?" The answer to the second question changes per application, which is why tailoring per job is the entire workflow.
A few rules of thumb for reading the score:
90+
rare. You already have most of what the JD is asking for. The bigger lift now is the cover letter, project portfolio, and bullet specificity — not the score.
75–89
competitive. Apply, but make sure the missing keywords list doesn't include anything you actually have on a different part of your resume — sometimes a recategorization fixes a 10-point gap.
60–74
needs tailoring. The bullets, summary, and skills section probably need work. The bullet-rewrite output and keyword suggestions are calibrated for this band.
Below 60
often signals either a missing skill section entirely, or a resume substantially off-target for the role. Worth asking whether this is the right job to apply to.
Format pitfalls
The 6 ATS traps that wreck a resume's parsing.
These are the format issues that cause modern ATS parsers to miscategorize, drop, or scramble parts of a resume. None of them are exotic — most appear in resumes built from Word/Google Docs/Canva templates.
Multi-column layouts
Most ATS parsers read top-to-bottom, left-to-right. A two-column resume often gets parsed as if both columns were a single stream, which scrambles the section order beyond recognition. Single column always.
Text inside images
Logos, icons with embedded text, or screenshots of contact info don't get extracted at all. ATS only reads selectable text. If you can't highlight a word in your PDF, neither can the parser.
Tables for layout
A resume that uses tables to control column widths frequently parses with cells in the wrong order. Use plain paragraphs and tab-stops for date alignment, not tables.
Headers & footers with key information
Some ATS systems strip header/footer regions before parsing. Putting your name, email, or page number in the header means the parser may not see it. Keep contact info in the body of the document.
Custom or decorative fonts
Stock fonts (Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman) parse reliably. Custom fonts that aren't embedded properly in the PDF can show up as garbled characters. Stick to system fonts unless you've personally tested the parsing.
Acronyms without expansion
ATS keyword matching is mostly literal. If the JD says 'CRM' and your resume says only 'Salesforce,' the keyword match misses. Spell out the category once: 'Salesforce (CRM)' fixes it. The reverse — 'CRM (Salesforce)' — works equally well.
vs. Other ATS Checkers
How this compares to Jobscan and Rezi.
| Laxu Resume | Jobscan | Rezi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free first scan | Full output | Limited | Limited |
| Starting price | $0.99/job | $49.95/mo | $29/mo |
| Built specifically for | Students + new grads | All applicants | All applicants |
| Honest scoring claim | Match-against-JD | Pass-rate language | Pass-rate language |
| Bullet rewriting included | Yes, per bullet | Yes (paid) | Yes (paid) |
| Cover letter included | Yes | Add-on | Yes |
| Sector-aware (nursing, marketing, etc.) | Yes (14 sectors) | Generic | Generic |
| No-invention guarantee | Explicit | Not stated | Not stated |
Pricing reflects publicly listed plans on each tool's website as of May 2026. Verify on the source pages — Jobscan and Rezi have changed pricing structure several times since 2023.
FAQ
Frequently asked.
Is this ATS resume checker actually free?
Yes. No signup, no credit card. Every browser gets one full tailoring with the complete score breakdown, missing keywords, and bullet rewrites. From the second tailoring onward, the score and top 3 keywords stay free; the rest of the rewrite output unlocks for $0.99 per job or with a subscription.
Does this check my resume against the *actual* ATS?
No — and any tool that claims to is misleading you. Real applicant tracking systems (Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Lever, Taleo) are closed proprietary systems; their parsing logic is not public and varies by employer configuration. What we do is score how well your resume *matches* a specific job description across 6 components: keyword match, required-skills coverage, format quality, quantification, section completeness, and length. That score predicts how strong a candidate you'll look like to a human recruiter scanning quickly — which is what determines whether your resume advances past the initial screen.
What is a good Resume Match Score?
70+ is competitive for most internship and entry-level roles. 80+ is strong. Above 90 is rare and usually means the resume already has the JD's required tools and keywords on it — at which point the bigger lift comes from the cover letter and the bullets themselves, not the score. Below 60 typically signals either a missing skill section, missing required tools, or a resume that's substantially off-target for the role.
Why does my score change between job descriptions?
Because the score measures *match*, not absolute resume quality. The same resume can score 88 against one JD and 62 against another simply because the JDs ask for different tools and keywords. That's the whole point: tailor the resume per application, then re-score.
Will my resume actually pass an ATS scan?
Most modern ATS pipelines parse standard PDFs and DOCX files reasonably well — provided you avoid the common traps: multi-column layouts, text inside images, custom fonts, headers/footers with critical info, tables for layout, and decorative graphics. Our PDF and DOCX exports follow ATS-friendly conventions by default — single column, stock Helvetica or Calibri, no images, no tables. We can't guarantee any specific employer's setup will parse perfectly (their parser config is private), but we cover the cases that fail most often.
What's the difference between this and Jobscan or Rezi?
Jobscan and Rezi are similar in concept (paste resume + JD, get a score). Three differences: (1) we're free for the first tailoring; Jobscan starts at $49.95/mo; Rezi at $29/mo. (2) We're built specifically for students and entry-level applicants, not laid-off executives, so our diagnosis copy and rewrite prompts are calibrated for student-shaped resumes. (3) We're honest — we don't promise to 'beat the ATS' because we can't verify that for closed systems. We promise a real match score and a real missing-keywords list.
Can it parse my PDF or DOCX upload?
Yes. We support standard PDF and DOCX uploads up to 5MB. The parser handles most resume layouts cleanly; if your file uses heavy multi-column design or text-in-image, you'll see a parse-quality warning before scoring. For best results, upload an ATS-friendly single-column file in the first place.
Does it work for non-tech roles like nursing or marketing?
Yes. The scoring detects the JD's sector and weights keywords accordingly. A nursing JD asking for BLS/ACLS/Epic gets matched against your certifications and clinical skills; a marketing JD asking for HubSpot/Meta Ads/GA4 gets matched against your platforms and analytics tooling. The diagnosis copy is sector-aware too — a nursing student doesn't get advice about 'open-source contributions.'
How long does it take?
Under 30 seconds for the score and missing keywords; under 2 minutes for the full output (score + keywords + bullet rewrites + summary rewrite + cover letter draft).
First tailoring fully unlocked
Ready to score your resume?
Score, missing keywords, bullet rewrites, cover letter, and ATS-friendly PDF + DOCX exports — all free, no signup.