How Is My ATS Score Calculated? The 8 Factors, Explained

Your ATS score is built from eight separate checks added together to make one number out of 100. Knowing what each one covers, and how it's weighted, tells you exactly where to spend your editing time instead of guessing.

Format and technical compatibility, worth 20%

This is the single heaviest check, and it comes first for a reason: if the parsing software can't read your CV, nothing else on this list matters yet. A single-column layout in a standard font scores full marks. A Canva-style template with graphical elements, or a design built on columns, loses points, and if both problems are present at once this check can score zero, which is enough on its own to cap your overall score regardless of how strong the content underneath it is. It's usually the cheapest thing on this list to fix, a layout change rather than a rewrite, so it's worth sorting before anything else.

Section structure, quantified results and experience descriptions, worth 15% each

These three make up the next tier. Section structure looks for the five sections an ATS expects, contact details, a summary, experience, education and skills, and scores you down for each one that's missing or that the system can't identify. Quantified results checks your most recent roles for actual numbers, a percentage, a headcount, a budget, rather than just a list of responsibilities; the target is roughly two of your three most recent roles carrying a real figure. Experience descriptions checks that those same roles have a genuine description behind the job title, not just a title and a company name with nothing to show what you actually did there.

Skills quality, contact completeness and summary quality, worth 10% each

Skills quality rewards a focused list: somewhere between eight and fifteen skills scores best, since too few looks thin and too many reads as unfocused keyword stuffing. Contact completeness checks that your name, email, phone number, location and LinkedIn URL are all present, missing your LinkedIn specifically will always show as a warning even if the other four fields are there, since it's one of the first things a recruiter checks. Summary quality looks for a genuine professional summary of around three to five sentences rather than one line or nothing.

Generic phrases, worth 5%

This is the smallest check and the easiest to fix. Overused phrases like "hardworking," "team player" or "results-oriented" cost you a small amount each time they appear, because they take up space without telling anyone anything specific. Swap them for what you actually did and the words start earning their place.

Why formatting outweighs any single content edit

Because format and technical compatibility alone is worth as much as section structure and quantified results combined, a CV built on a creative template can score low even when the experience behind it is strong. Moving to a single column with standard headings, before touching a single sentence of content, is often the fastest way to lift a low score.

Reading a pass, a warning and a fail

Not every check that falls short of full marks is a failure worth panicking over. A warning usually means you're close, three of your last four roles have a number attached instead of all four, say, or your LinkedIn URL is missing but the rest of your contact details are solid. Those are quick top-ups. A fail on a heavily weighted check, formatting in particular, is worth treating differently, since it can drag the whole score down regardless of how good everything else is. Skimming your breakdown for fails before you touch anything marked as a warning is usually the better order to work in.

What to fix first

Start with your lowest-scoring check, not the one that feels most important. If formatting is already clean, quantified results and experience descriptions are usually the next-highest-value fixes: adding a number to two or three bullet points tends to move the score more than polishing a summary that was already doing fine. Check your own free with the CV Score tool to see exactly which of the eight checks is holding you back.

Related guides

• Free ATS score checker
• What is a good ATS score?

For more on how this fits together, see Free ATS Score Checker: Check Your CV in 30 Seconds, Good ATS Score 2026: What Counts as Passing, and How Does ATS Scoring Work? What Applicant Tracking Systems Actually Measure.