ATS CV checker
See what a parser actually extracts from your CV, which structural checks pass or fail, and whether a second pass loses text. No account required. Rewrites stay behind signup.
Free · no account
Upload a PDF or DOCX
We extract the text the way a typical ATS does, score structural checks, and show round-trip fidelity. The file is not kept — only a short-lived shareable result if you want a link.
Max 8 MB · PDF or DOCX
What an ATS actually does with your file
An applicant tracking system does not “read” a CV the way a recruiter does. It ingests a PDF or DOCX, turns it into text (and sometimes fields), then matches rules and keywords. If that first extraction step is messy, everything downstream is guessing.
This tool runs the same deterministic extract and structural checks MyChapter uses in product — not a vendor score you cannot inspect, and not an AI rewrite. Gaps stay gaps. Share links keep results for about 48 hours by default; the original file is not stored.
What each result means
Contact details in body text
Parsers often miss text that lives only in a PDF header or footer. An email or phone in the main body is far more likely to survive extraction.
Standard section headings
Plain headings such as Experience, Education, and Skills help both humans and machines find structure. Clever synonyms are easy for recruiters and hard for parsers.
Machine-readable dates
Date ranges next to roles (for example Jan 2020 – Mar 2023) are how tenure is inferred. Icons, images, or decorative separators do not count.
Single-column layout
Multi-column designs and text-in-tables often interleave lines when converted to a character stream. The check is a text heuristic, not a full layout engine.
Machine-readable text
Scanned pages and text drawn as images extract little or nothing. A thin word count for a large file is a strong signal something went wrong.
Round-trip fidelity
We extract once, then extract again from the same file and compare. Drift or loss means the format is fragile — simplify layout and re-export.
Want the longer explanation? Read What an ATS actually sees and How MyChapter scores your CV.