What Is a Good ATS Score? 60, 70, 80 and 85 Explained
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A good ATS score is 70 or above out of 100 against the job description you are applying to. In ResumeAdapter's data for 10 June to 31 August 2026, a 70 puts a resume in the top 23% of first submissions, and the median is 52. Most ATS systems publish no hard threshold, so treat 70 as a working benchmark.
In short: Below 40, the resume and the job are far apart. 52 is the median first submission. 70 or above is the top 23%, and 80 or above is the top 14%. Past 80, stop chasing the number and check that every claim is true. A score is a checker's estimate against one job description. No employer sees it.
Already have a job description? Compare your resume with it before you apply. The score is guidance for your review, not the employer's screening result.
Table of contents
- What an ATS score actually measures
- ATS score ranges at a glance
- What ATS score do you need?
- Score by score: 60 to 90 and above
- What actually moves the score
- Worked example: reading a score of 61
- When a high score is not enough
- FAQ
What an ATS score actually measures
An ATS score is a resume checker's estimate of how closely your resume matches one job description. It is not the ranking, if any, that the employer's applicant tracking system shows a recruiter. Change the job description and the same resume gets a different score.
That matters because the systems employers actually run rank candidates in their own ways, and several do not use a percentage at all.
| System | What its documentation describes | What it means for "your score" |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle Taleo | No percentage score. Ranking runs through the Required and Asset prescreening criteria on the requisition, and candidates who meet all Required plus some Asset criteria are flagged ACE candidates (Taleo guide). | Your prescreening answers decide your ranking. No checker's number comes from Taleo. |
| Greenhouse | Optional Talent Matching sorts candidates into five categories: Strong match, Good match, Partial match, Limited match and Needs manual review. Greenhouse calls it "assistive AI" that "does not automatically advance or reject candidates" (Greenhouse Support). | If the feature is on, a recruiter sees a category, not a checker's number. Greenhouse's Auto-Reject fires on answers to custom application questions, not on resume text (Greenhouse guide). |
| Resume checkers, including ResumeAdapter | A 0 to 100 estimate for one resume against one job description. ResumeAdapter scores using keyword matching, skills gap analysis and experience assessment (methodology). | Useful for finding gaps before you apply. Checkers do not share a formula, so a 70 on one tool is not a 70 on another. |
So read the score as a diagnosis, not a verdict. It tells you where your resume and this posting disagree, not what a recruiter will decide.
ATS score ranges at a glance
The ranges below come from ResumeAdapter's first-submission data: one analysis per person per role, scored by a single model between 10 June and 31 August 2026, before any edits.
| Score | Where it sits | What it usually means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below 40 | 28% of first submissions score below 40 | The resume and the job are far apart, often a generic resume or a different field | Check that the must-have requirements fit before you edit anything |
| 40 to 49 | Together with the row above, 44% of first submissions score below 50 | Real overlap, but required skills and key terms are missing | Close the skill and term gaps you can honestly support |
| 50 to 69 | The median is 52 and the quartile range is 38 to 68 | A typical starting point before tailoring | Targeted edits to bullets and skills wording |
| 70 to 79 | 70 or above is the top 23% of first submissions | The working benchmark | Fix any remaining critical terms, then read it as a recruiter would |
| 80 and above | Only 14% of first submissions reach 80 or above | Strong match territory | Stop optimizing the number and check every claim |
These figures describe resumes as they arrive, written for no particular job, so low starting scores are the norm. The same dataset shows what happens next: once a resume is actually edited against the same job description, the median gain from first run to last is 18 points. When an unchanged resume is simply re-scored, the median change is 0, which is the control (Finding 04).
What ATS score do you need?
There is no universal passing score. Most ATS systems do not publish a hard threshold, so treat 70 as a working benchmark rather than a published cutoff (ATS statistics).
Be careful with tables that assign a "minimum passing score" to named ATS brands. Taleo is a clear counterexample: Oracle's documentation describes ranking through prescreening criteria and no percentage score at all, so a Taleo cutoff expressed as a percentage has nothing to attach to (Taleo guide).
Checker vendors do publish targets for their own scales. Jobscan, for example, writes: "We generally recommend a match rate score of 80%" (Jobscan, May 2022). That target applies to Jobscan's match rate, which is its own formula. It does not transfer to other tools or to any employer's system.
A practical way to use a score out of 100:
- Aim for 70 or above against the specific job you are applying to.
- Treat 80 or above as the point of diminishing returns. More keyword edits past this point mostly make the resume harder to read.
- Below 40, question the fit before the wording. A very low score can mean the role is a stretch, not that the resume is badly written.
Score by score: 60 to 90 and above
Is 60 a good ATS score?
A 60 is above average but below the working benchmark. It beats the median first submission of 52 and sits inside the quartile range of 38 to 68, so it is ahead of more than half of resumes as submitted but short of the top quarter. A 60 usually means the core experience is there and some required skills or exact terms are missing. That calls for targeted edits, not a rewrite.
Is 70 a good ATS score?
Yes, 70 is a good ATS score. It puts your resume in the top 23% of first submissions in our data. It is a benchmark, not a guarantee. At 70, look first at any critical terms still missing, meaning the keywords the job description treats as essential, because those are the terms a recruiter is most likely to search on.
Is 75 a good ATS score?
Yes. A 75 is above the working benchmark, so it sits within the top 23% of first submissions, though below the 80 that only 14% reach. Gains get harder from here. Resumes already scoring above 70 move less when edited, and 19% of revisions in our data score lower than the run before, usually when an edit trades a keyword the posting wanted for one it did not. Edit deliberately, one gap at a time.
Is 80 a good ATS score?
Yes, 80 is a strong ATS score. Only 14% of first submissions reach 80 or above. At this level the resume covers most of what the job description asks for, and further keyword edits tend to add less. Jobscan describes 80% on its own scale as "the sweet spot between optimizing your resume without overstuffing it with keywords" (Jobscan). Spend the remaining time on the screening questions and on the bullets an interviewer is likely to ask about.
Is 85 a good ATS score?
Yes. An 85 falls within the 14% of first submissions that reach 80 or above; we do not publish a separate figure for 85. The question at 85 is no longer the score. It is whether the resume still reads naturally, and whether every claim that got you there is one you can support in an interview.
Is 90 or above a good ATS score?
A 90 or above is excellent on paper, and worth a second look. Check that the resume has not turned into a copy of the job description: the same keyword in every section, tools you used once, a summary that restates the posting. A person still reads the resume, and a document that mirrors the ad reads as exactly that.
What actually moves the score
Before editing, it helps to know which gaps show up most. This is how often each problem was flagged across first submissions in the current edition of our statistics, ranked by frequency.
| Rank | Gap | How often it appears | The fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Experience does not cover what the job asks for | 99% of first submissions | Rewrite the most relevant bullets to evidence the stated responsibilities |
| 2 | Bullets too weak or generic to evidence a requirement | 94% | Name the tool, the task and the result |
| 3 | At least one required skill missing | 91%; the median resume misses 7 | Add skills you have, in the posting's wording |
| 4 | A critical keyword absent entirely | 72% of premium first submissions; the median misses 2 | Use the exact term wherever it is true |
| 5 | Not one job description keyword found | 6% of premium first submissions | Usually the wrong role, not the wrong resume |
Layout and parsing failures are not in this table because we do not measure them. They are real and cheap to fix, but recruiters do not describe them as a rejection trigger: in Enhancv's 2025 interviews with 25 US recruiters, 23 of 25 said rejections are manual or triggered only by eligibility filters, never by formatting.
On average, 54% of the keywords in the target job description are missing from the resume, and the median resume misses 5 keywords overall (Finding 02). That is usually a vocabulary gap rather than a skills gap: the experience exists, described in different words.
The lesson is in what the table contains. Every row is a content gap. A clean layout is cheap and worth doing (the ATS resume format guide covers it), but it will not close a missing-skill gap. To see bullets that name tool, task and result in a complete document, look at the project manager resume example or the marketing manager resume example, which also list the common mistakes to avoid for each role.
Your first step is seeing your own version of this table. Compare your resume with the job description, then sort each gap into one of the rows above before you change a word.
Worked example: reading a score of 61
The resume and job below are fictional. Use the structure, not the numbers.
The job. A Data Analyst role at a regional health insurer. The posting asks for SQL and Tableau (required), Python (preferred), A/B testing, experience with claims data, and weekly reporting to stakeholders.
The candidate. Three years as a reporting analyst at a retail chain. Uses SQL daily, builds dashboards in Power BI, writes Python scripts to clean data, and has run split tests on promotional emails. No healthcare or claims experience.
The fictional report:
| What the report shows | Fictional result |
|---|---|
| Score | 61 out of 100 |
| Required skills missing | Tableau, Python |
| Critical terms missing | A/B testing, claims data |
| Experience strength | Medium |
How to read it. A 61 is above the median of 52 and below the benchmark of 70. The gaps sort into three piles: things the candidate has under another name, things the candidate has but never wrote down, and things the candidate does not have.
| Gap | Does the candidate have it? | Action | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| A/B testing | Yes, written as "split tests" | Use the posting's term for the real work | 1 |
| Python | Yes, used for cleaning scripts but never listed | Add to skills and to the bullet where it was used | 2 |
| Medium experience strength | Bullets list duties, not results | Rewrite the two most relevant bullets | 3 |
| Tableau | No, Power BI instead | Do not add Tableau. Name Power BI clearly as the comparable tool | Leave |
| Claims data | No | Leave it out of the resume; address it in the cover letter | Leave |
Before:
Ran split tests on promotional emails and reported results.
After:
Ran A/B tests on promotional emails, pulling results with SQL and cleaning the data in Python before reporting on them.
In this fictional case the re-score comes back at 72, with Tableau and claims data still listed as missing. That is the right outcome. The score crossed the benchmark on real evidence, and the remaining gaps are honest ones. The data analyst resume example shows a full document for this role, and the data analyst cover letter example shows how a letter can tie an achievement from one domain to the employer's own goals, which is where a gap like claims data belongs.
Run the same read on your resume against the job you are targeting. Fix gaps in this order: terms you have under another name, skills you have but never listed, then weak bullets. Leave the gaps you cannot support.
When a high score is not enough
A score measures how well your resume covers one posting. Three things it does not measure can still decide the application.
Screening questions come first. Oracle documents that a Taleo disqualification question can end an application immediately, whatever the resume says (Taleo guide). Greenhouse documents Auto-Reject rules that fire on answers to custom application questions (Greenhouse guide). An 85 does not help if a knockout answer about work authorization or years of experience triggers a rule. Answer these accurately. Our guide to whether ATS automatically reject resumes shows what each system documents.
Recruiters search with the posting's words. Oracle states that Taleo keyword search is treated as an exact match. The exact term from the job description, used once where it is true, does more than three near-synonyms. The ATS keywords list helps you spot the role-specific terms worth checking.
A person makes the decision. No score measures whether a bullet is believable or whether the top of the page shows fit.
The pre-apply routine, then:
- Read the screening questions and make sure the resume supports every answer.
- Compare the resume with the job description and work toward 70 on real evidence.
- Past 80, stop editing for the score and read the file as a person would.
Related reading
- ATS Statistics 2026 has the full score distribution, the ranked gap list and the control-group measurement behind every number here.
- Do ATS Systems Automatically Reject Resumes? separates what can reject an application from what only ranks it.
- How to Pass ATS Screening walks through the full process from layout to keywords.
- ATS Keywords List collects role-specific terms to check against your job description.
- ATS Resume Format 2026 covers the layout fixes that take five minutes.
- Oracle Taleo ATS guide explains how Taleo ranks through prescreening criteria instead of a score.
- ATS optimization hub gathers the wider set of applicant tracking system guides.
Primary sources
- Jobscan: What Jobscan Match Rate Should I Aim For? (Hannah Baes, 13 May 2022)
- Enhancv: Does the ATS Reject Your Resume? 25 Recruiters Explain What Really Happens (updated 9 September 2026)
- Greenhouse Support: Talent Matching (updated 9 September 2026)
Before you apply
Get to 70 against the job you actually want, close the gaps you can honestly close, and leave the rest.
Compare your resume with the job description and see which skills and terms are missing before the employer does. The score is guidance for your review. It cannot see an employer's settings or guarantee an interview.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions readers ask about this topic.
Is an ATS score of 70 good?
Yes. In ResumeAdapter's analyses from 10 June to 31 August 2026, a score of 70 or above puts a resume in the top 23% of first submissions, against a median of 52. Most ATS systems do not publish a hard threshold, so treat 70 as a working benchmark rather than a published cutoff.
Is 80 a good ATS score?
Yes, 80 is a strong score. Only 14% of first submissions reach 80 or above. Past that point, further keyword edits tend to add less, so spend your time on the screening questions and on making sure every claim is one you can explain in an interview.
Is an ATS score of 85 good?
Yes. An 85 falls within the 14% of first submissions that score 80 or above. At that level the useful check is no longer the number but the resume itself: it should read naturally, and every skill it lists should be one you have actually used.
What ATS score do you need to get an interview?
No score guarantees an interview, and most ATS systems do not publish a passing threshold. Aim for 70 or above against the specific job description, answer the screening questions accurately, and make sure a recruiter can see your fit within the first few lines. The score measures alignment with one posting, not the hiring decision.
Does the employer see my ATS score?
Not the score a resume checker shows you. That number is the checker's own estimate of how well your resume matches one job description. Employer systems rank in their own ways: Oracle documents that Taleo ranks through prescreening criteria rather than a percentage, and Greenhouse's optional Talent Matching sorts candidates into five categories such as Strong match and Partial match.
Why do different resume checkers give me different scores?
Each checker uses its own formula, and every score depends on the job description you compare against. A 70 on one tool is not the same measurement as a 70 on another. Compare scores only within one tool and against the same job description, and focus on the list of gaps rather than the number.
How do I check which keywords I'm missing?
Upload your resume to ResumeAdapter and paste the job description you are targeting. The analysis compares the two, gives you a score out of 100, and shows the keywords and required skills from the posting that your resume does not contain. Add only the terms that describe experience you actually have, then run the comparison again against the same job description.