Free ATS resume keyword checker
Paste a job description next to your resume and see which of its key terms you already cover and which are missing. Free, instant, and private — nothing is uploaded.
Check your resume against a job → Free · no sign up · nothing uploaded
Why keywords matter to an ATS
Most employers run applications through an applicant tracking system (ATS) before a person reads them. Recruiters search and filter those applications by the skills, tools, and titles named in the job description. If your resume describes the same experience in different words, it can rank lower or not surface at all.
Tailoring is not keyword stuffing. It means naming the things you genuinely did in the same terms the employer uses — "stakeholder management" instead of "working with other teams", "PostgreSQL" instead of "databases".
How the checker works
- Build or import your resume in the editor.
- Open "Tailor for a job" and paste the full job description.
- The checker extracts the most frequent meaningful terms from the posting, ignoring filler words.
- Each term is marked as present or missing in your resume, with a match percentage.
- Edit your bullet points and summary to cover the missing terms you can honestly claim, and watch the score update live.
A realistic target
Aim to cover roughly 60% or more of the extracted terms. 100% is neither necessary nor believable — some terms describe the company rather than the candidate. Focus on hard skills, tools, and job-title words that appear more than once in the posting.
The other half: an ATS-readable PDF
Keywords only help if the ATS can read them. Every katlab.cv template exports a real-text PDF with standard section headings, so names, dates, and bullets parse cleanly. See the ATS-friendly resume templates for the safest layouts.
Check your resume against a job →
Frequently asked questions
Is my resume or the job description uploaded anywhere?
No. The matching runs in your browser with plain JavaScript. There is no server, account, or database behind it.
Is this the same as a real ATS score?
No tool can reproduce a specific employer’s ATS, and sites that claim an exact "ATS score" are guessing. This checker does the part that reliably matters: showing which terms from the job description your resume does not mention yet.
Should I tailor my resume for every job?
For roles you really want, yes. Keep a master resume, save a Backup .json, and adjust the summary and top bullets for each application — it usually takes ten minutes and noticeably improves your match.