What Is a Good ATS Score for a Resume? (And How to Improve Yours)
You ran your resume through an ATS checker and got a score. Now what?
Most job seekers don't know what the number actually means, whether 65 is acceptable or disqualifying, whether 82 is strong enough, or what moves the needle between a 58 and a 78.
This guide explains what ATS scores mean, what counts as good, and exactly how to improve yours before your next application.
What Is an ATS Score?
An ATS score is a number generated by an applicant tracking system (or a resume checker tool that simulates one) to measure how well your resume matches a job posting. It reflects a combination of factors: keyword overlap with the job description, formatting compatibility, section completeness, and writing quality.
Scores are typically shown as a number out of 100 or as a percentage match. A higher score means your resume is more likely to pass automated filters and reach a human recruiter.
Two types of scores matter:
- General ATS compatibility score: how well your resume is formatted and structured for ATS systems overall, regardless of a specific job
- Job-specific match score: how closely your resume aligns with a particular job description's keywords, skills, and requirements
Both matter. A resume can be perfectly formatted but score 45% against a specific job description because the keywords don't match. You need both scores to be strong.
What Is a Good ATS Score?
| Score Range | Rating | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|---|
| 85 - 100 | Excellent | Strong keyword alignment and clean formatting. High chance of passing filters and reaching recruiter review. |
| 70 - 84 | Good | Competitive for most roles. May not pass in very high-volume applications, but solid for targeted applications. |
| 55 - 69 | Needs work | At risk of being filtered, especially for popular roles. Missing key keywords or has formatting issues. |
| 40 - 54 | Weak | Significant keyword gaps or structural problems. Likely filtered before a recruiter sees it. |
| Below 40 | Critical issues | Major formatting, content, or keyword problems. Resume needs a substantial overhaul. |
The threshold that matters in practice varies by role. A score of 72 on a niche technical role with 25 applicants may advance. The same score on a popular entry-level role with 800 applicants probably won't. As a safe target, aim for 80 or above before submitting any application you care about.
What Factors Affect Your ATS Score?
1. Keyword Match Rate
The single biggest driver of your job-specific score. ATS systems extract required skills, tools, qualifications, and role titles from the job description and check whether those terms appear in your resume. Missing high-priority keywords tanks your score even if everything else is strong.
2. Resume Formatting
Formatting that looks great to a human often breaks ATS parsing. Tables, columns, text boxes, graphics, headers and footers, and unusual fonts cause ATS systems to misread or skip content entirely. A clean single-column layout with standard fonts always scores better than a visually complex design.
3. Section Completeness
ATS systems expect standard sections: Work Experience, Education, Skills, and a Summary or Objective. Missing sections or creative section names ("My Journey," "What I've Built") can cause the parser to miss important content and lower your score.
4. Bullet Point Quality
Modern AI-powered ATS tools evaluate not just whether keywords appear but how they're used. Bullet points that lead with action verbs and include measurable outcomes signal stronger experience than passive or vague descriptions.
5. File Format
PDF and DOCX are the safest formats. Image-based PDFs (scanned documents), Pages files, and heavily designed templates often parse poorly or not at all, which will crater your score regardless of your content.
6. Relevance of Experience
Some ATS tools weight recency: skills and experience from your most recent roles count more than experience from five or more years ago. If a required skill only appears in an old role, consider adding it to your skills section or summary to ensure it registers.
How to Improve Your ATS Score: Step by Step
Step 1: Check Your Score First
Before making any changes, get a baseline. LoopCV's free ATS resume checker gives you an instant score out of 100 with no login required. Upload your resume, paste the job description you're targeting, and see exactly where you stand and which keywords are missing.
Step 2: Mirror the Job Description Keywords
Read the job posting and identify every specific skill, tool, qualification, and phrase that appears. Compare against your resume. For every required skill you have but haven't mentioned using the posting's exact language, add it. If the posting says "stakeholder management" and you wrote "worked with stakeholders," update your language to match.
Step 3: Fix Your Formatting
Switch to a clean single-column layout if you haven't already. Remove tables, columns, text boxes, and graphic elements. Use standard section headers. Ensure your font is a standard choice (Arial, Calibri, Georgia, or similar). Save as PDF or DOCX.
Step 4: Add a Dedicated Skills Section
A skills section gives ATS parsers a clean, easy-to-read list of your competencies. List tools, technologies, methodologies, and certifications. Update this section for each application to front-load the skills most relevant to that specific role.
Step 5: Strengthen Your Bullet Points
Audit every bullet point. Each one should start with a strong action verb (Led, Built, Reduced, Increased, Delivered, Managed) and ideally include a measurable outcome. "Reduced customer churn by 18% through proactive outreach program" scores better than "Helped with customer retention."
Step 6: Re-check and Iterate
After making changes, run your resume through the ATS checker again. Repeat until you hit 80 or above against your target job description. For roles you're especially interested in, each percentage point you gain meaningfully increases your chances of reaching recruiter review.
Common Mistakes That Kill Your ATS Score
- Using a fancy resume template: visually impressive, ATS-unreadable. The resume that gets you past filters is simple and clean, not designed.
- Sending the same resume to every job: your general formatting score may be fine, but your job-specific match score will be low for every role that uses different terminology.
- Hiding skills in graphics or icons: skill bars, star ratings, and icon-based skill sections are invisible to ATS parsers. List skills as plain text.
- Listing responsibilities instead of results: "Responsible for managing social media accounts" is a job description, not an accomplishment. "Grew Instagram following from 8K to 45K in 12 months" is an accomplishment.
- Ignoring the file format: submitting a .pages file or a scanned PDF can result in a near-zero parse score regardless of your content.
What to Do After You Improve Your Score
A strong ATS score means your resume passes filters and reaches a human. But reaching a recruiter is only the first step. From there, you need volume: enough applications going out consistently to generate a meaningful number of interview opportunities.
Once your resume is optimized, LoopCV can automatically apply to hundreds of matching jobs across 30+ platforms on your behalf, daily. You fix your score once, and then let the platform handle the application volume while you focus on interview preparation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What ATS score do I need to get an interview?
There is no universal threshold, as each employer configures their ATS differently. As a practical target, aim for 80 or above on a job-specific match score before submitting. Below 60 carries a meaningful risk of being filtered before a human sees your application, especially for competitive or high-volume roles.
Is a 70 ATS score good enough?
A score of 70 is competitive for many roles but not guaranteed to pass in high-applicant-volume situations. For roles you care most about, it's worth investing 15 to 20 minutes to push your score above 80 by adding missing keywords and tightening your skills section. For roles where you're a stretch candidate, 70 may be the best you can realistically achieve.
Does ATS score matter more than resume quality?
Both matter at different stages. ATS score determines whether a human ever sees your resume. Once a recruiter reviews it, the quality of your writing, the strength of your accomplishments, and the relevance of your experience take over. A high ATS score with a weak resume gets you into the pile but not through it. You need both.
How do I check my ATS score for free?
LoopCV's free ATS resume checker at loopcv.pro/ai-cv-checker gives you an instant score out of 100 with no account or credit card required. Upload your resume as PDF or DOCX, optionally paste a job description for a job-specific match score, and get a breakdown of keywords, formatting issues, and areas to improve.
Can I have a high ATS score but still not get interviews?
Yes. ATS score is a filter, not a guarantee. A high score means your resume reaches a recruiter, but the recruiter then evaluates your actual qualifications, experience, and how you present your accomplishments. If your score is high but callbacks are low, the issue is likely the content and writing quality of your resume rather than keyword gaps or formatting.
