ATS Resume Checker: Score & Keyword Feedback

What it checks

An applicant tracking system (ATS) turns your file into text and fields before a recruiter searches or reads it. The checker looks for the things that commonly go wrong in that step, and for content problems a recruiter would notice. Checks are grouped into five weighted categories:

ATS essentials · 25%: File type and size, file name, selectable text, multi-column layout or tables, images, header and footer content, name, email, phone, location and links.
Sections · 15%: Experience, education and skills present; each role has a title, company and start date; summary length.
Content & impact · 30%: Measurable results, action verbs, weak phrasing such as “responsible for”, bullet length and count per role, repetition, buzzwords and overall length.
Style · 10%: First-person pronouns, punctuation, consistent date formats, reverse-chronological order and employment gaps.
Job match · 20%: When you paste a job description: hard-skill and soft-skill keyword coverage, and whether your headline matches the job title.

Critical problems cap the score, however good the rest is: a resume with no experience section or an invalid email can't score above 64, and an image-only file with no text layer is capped at 30.

How it works

Choose a source
Upload a PDF or DOCX (up to 5 MB), or pick one of your saved resumes.
Optionally paste a job description
This turns on the job match category. See job match.
Read the report
Issues are sorted by severity: critical, improve, suggestion and passed. Each one says what was found and why it matters, and points to the section or bullet involved.
Fix in the editor
Open the report in the editor. Each issue has one action: Fix (a safe change applied immediately and undoable), Fix with AI (a suggestion you review), Edit manually (the field opens with guidance, for facts only you know), or Show.
Re-check
An issue counts as resolved only when a fresh check passes, not because you clicked a button.

Rule-based, not a black box

The score is calculated by fixed rules. The same content and job description always produce the same report, and the checks run without any AI. An optional AI recruiter review can add red flags, a skills comparison and a suggested headline, but its findings carry zero weight: they never change the score.

What the score means

The score estimates how well a resume follows common ATS parsing and recruiter-reading rules. It can't predict how a particular employer's system is configured, and a high score doesn't guarantee an interview.

Limitations

Only PDF and DOCX are accepted. Scanned PDFs with no text layer and password-protected PDFs can't be read.
For uploads, detailed section parsing uses AI. If AI isn't available, file-level checks still run but content checks are limited.
Scores for an uploaded file can vary slightly between runs, because the AI parse of the file may differ. Checks on a saved resume are fully repeatable.
Checks that involve dates (gaps, years of experience) treat “Present” as today, so they can change over time.

Privacy

Uploaded files are read in memory and not kept as files. For a file upload, the report is saved to your check history (the latest 100 reports are kept). If AI parsing is used, emails, phone numbers, links and your name are replaced with placeholders before the text is sent. Details are in the privacy policy.

Turn an ATS report into a practical editing plan

Start with problems that prevent a reader from understanding the document: missing contact information, unreadable text or incomplete role details. Then check whether sections and dates make sense. Wording and keyword suggestions become more useful once the basic document is complete. An attractive score should never be a reason to add an achievement you cannot defend.

Imagine a fictional graduate whose project is listed only as “Sales dashboard”. A more informative entry would name the dataset, the tool used and the student's contribution. If the checker asks for measurable impact but there was no business deployment, describe the completed analysis honestly. A personal project does not need an invented revenue improvement.

Use the report as a conversation with your document. Check the exact bullet referenced by an issue, make a justified change and run the check again. A warning can reveal a genuine problem, but it can also reflect a rule that needs context. Our ATS resume guide explains why employer systems differ, and the bullet-writing guide helps with content improvements.

A sensible order for reviewing your results

Confirm the checker read the intended file or saved resume.
Correct factual omissions and unreadable structure first.
Review keyword gaps against experience you actually have.
Re-check changes and inspect the final exported document, not only its score.

Questions before you get started

Is QuickHunt's ATS score an employer's score?

No. It is QuickHunt's own assessment of common document and content checks. It is not connected to an employer's screening system, and it cannot reveal an employer's shortlist or hiring criteria.

Why can an uploaded file differ from my saved resume?

A saved resume already has structured fields. An upload must first be read and may use AI to recover sections; a complicated layout or a different parse can change the inputs. Compare the recovered details before interpreting the score.

Does a better score mean I should keep every suggested change?

Keep only changes that improve accuracy and clarity for the target role. A conventional rule may not fit an academic CV or an unusual career history. Employer instructions and truthful evidence take priority over chasing a perfect number.