Resume Keyword Scanner: Compare Your Resume to a Job Description
Paste the posting and your resume. You get every term a recruiter is likely to search for, how many times the posting uses it, and whether your resume has it as written, in a different form, or not at all. Counts and terms, not a made-up match score.
Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
1. The job description
2. Your resume
Add the job description and your resume to scan.
What does the scanner look for in a job description?
Five fixed rules, applied the same way every time. There is no model guessing which words matter, so the same posting always gives the same list, and you can see why a term is there.
| Term type | How it is found | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Acronyms | 2–6 capitals, digits allowed after the first letter | SQL, PMP, AWS, S3, B2B |
| Names and products | Capitalised words that do not start a sentence | Salesforce, Google Analytics, Tableau |
| Repeated phrases | Two- or three-word phrases used at least twice | product managers, data analysis |
| Listed requirements | Comma- or slash-separated items under Requirements, Qualifications or Skills | dbt, Snowflake, stakeholder management |
| Abbreviation pairs | A phrase and its initials used together | search engine optimization (SEO) |
Around 200 function words and job-ad filler (experience, strong, team, years…) are never counted as terms. Terms are capped at 60 per posting.
What do Exact, Different form and Missing mean?
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Exact | The term appears in your resume as the posting spells it (case does not matter). | Nothing to do. |
| Different form | Your resume has another ending (dashboard vs dashboards) or the other half of an abbreviation pair (SEO vs search engine optimization). | Use the posting's form once; write the full term with the abbreviation in brackets. |
| Missing | The term is not in your resume in any form the scanner recognises. | Add it only if it is true for you, inside a bullet that shows you used it. |
Why is there no match percentage?
No applicant tracking system publishes a keyword threshold, so any percentage would be our own measure (our ATS score guide explains why no single number is official). A percentage also rewards stuffing: repeating a term raises the number without helping the recruiter who reads the result. Counts and the exact terms tell you what to change. For the method behind the tool, see how to find and use ATS keywords; to see the text a parser actually extracts from your file, use the plain text resume converter.
Resume keyword scanner FAQ
How does the resume keyword scanner work?
It reads the job description for the terms a recruiter would search for: acronyms (SQL, PMP), capitalised names (Salesforce, Google Analytics), phrases the posting repeats, and the items listed under Requirements, Qualifications or Skills. Then it checks your resume for each one: present as written (Exact), present with a different ending or as the abbreviation (Different form), or absent (Missing). Everything runs in your browser; no text is sent to a server.
Why is there no match percentage?
Because no applicant tracking system publishes one. A percentage would be our own invention, and chasing it leads to keyword stuffing. The table gives you counts and the exact terms instead, so you can decide which missing ones are true for you and add them in your own words.
What does "Different form" mean?
Your resume has the term with another ending (dashboard vs dashboards, test vs testing) or the other half of an abbreviation pair (SEO vs search engine optimization). A person reading your resume will understand it; a plain keyword search might not. Use the posting's form at least once, and spell out abbreviations with the short form in brackets.
Should I add every missing keyword?
No. Add only the ones that are true for you, and put each one inside a bullet that shows you used it. Terms under Requirements matter more than nice-to-haves, and a term the posting repeats matters more than one it mentions once.
Is the keyword scanner free, and is my resume uploaded?
It is free with no sign-up, and nothing is uploaded: the job description and your resume are compared in your browser. If you upload a PDF or DOCX, the file is read locally too.
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