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One article, and a class that reads at four different levels. The usual fix is to rewrite text to a grade level your students can handle, and in 2026 several AI tools will do it in a few clicks. Which one to open depends mostly on where the text lives and what you want back with it.
This guide compares Brisk, MagicSchool, Diffit, a no-account converter and a plain chatbot. We have not run our own side-by-side test, so where we describe how a tool behaves it comes from the vendor’s own help pages or from an independent WeAreTeachers roundup (published February 2025), and we say which. The part we think matters most comes at the end: how to tell whether the rewritten text is actually easier to read.
Quick answer: which tool to open to rewrite text to a grade level
- Text is on a web page, Google Doc, Word file, PDF or image: Brisk’s Change Level works on the page you already have open, and Brisk lists a free plan for teachers.
- You want to paste, upload, link or record the text: MagicSchool’s Text Leveler takes all four, and it has a free plan.
- You want a leveled passage plus questions, at several levels at once: Diffit.
- You are already in ChatGPT or Gemini: use the prompt below and check the result.
Prices and features were checked against the vendors’ own pages on 28 October 2026, and they change often.
Brisk Change Level: the one that works on the page you are already reading
In Brisk’s own how-to, you open the document or web page, click the Brisk extension, choose Change Level, and it shows the current reading level before you pick a new grade. Brisk then generates a new document with the text rewritten for that grade, which you can edit or add images to before sharing. Brisk says it supports most file types, including Google Docs, Word docs, PDFs and images, and that Change Level preserves the original structure and tone. If you would rather have a summary, its help page points you to a different tool, Create Anything.
The WeAreTeachers reviewer liked that there is no copy and paste and that the result lands in a Google Doc you can fix. On cost, that 2025 roundup quoted Pro plans from $9.99 a month, but Brisk’s current plans page lists Free for teachers and custom-priced Premium and Intelligence tiers for schools and districts, with no individual paid plan that we could see. Our longer Brisk Teaching review covers the rest of the toolkit.
MagicSchool Text Leveler: more ways to bring text in
The same roundup describes MagicSchool’s Text Leveler as taking pasted text, an uploaded file, a URL, or recorded audio, which can help with video transcripts. You enter the grade you want, then copy the result, save it to your account or edit it. The reviewer found the process “a little clunkier” than Brisk’s but praised the range of inputs, and noted that MagicSchool also has summarizing and translating tools that pair well with leveling.
The roundup’s sample shows what a rewrite looks like. A ninth-grade passage on bird migration was converted to a first-grade level: “predators” became “dangerous animals,” “exhaustion” became “being tired,” and the arctic tern’s 25,000-mile trip stayed in. The facts survived, which is what you want to confirm every time. On MagicSchool’s pricing page, the free plan is listed as forever free with 80+ teacher tools, and Plus is $8.33 a month billed yearly or $12.99 billed monthly. See our MagicSchool review for the wider platform.
Diffit: leveled text as part of a bigger bundle
Diffit lets you set the reading level before you generate, with an Adapt button and up to five levels at once, or change it afterwards from the three-dot menu, the plus menu or the chat, according to its help center. That makes it handy when you want the same article at three levels in one pass, along with questions and vocabulary.
The trade-off is how much it changes. In the WeAreTeachers test, Diffit altered the original text more than any other tool, adding its own interpretation and extra information for comprehension, and it struggled to pull text from the test URL, so pasting worked better. If you need the same passage made easier, that is a drawback; if you want a study resource built around it, it may be a plus. Our Diffit review has the current pricing, and Diffit vs MagicSchool vs ChatGPT compares the three head to head.
A chatbot and a good prompt
Any chat tool can level text. The WeAreTeachers reviewer notes that ChatGPT is not tailored to this job and may be less accurate at reaching a specific level, but it is quick and free. We think the fix is a prompt that protects the content. This one is ours, not something we ran against each tool:
Rewrite the passage below for students reading at about [grade] level. Keep every fact, number and name accurate. Keep these key terms and add a short plain-language definition in parentheses the first time each appears: [terms]. Use shorter sentences and everyday words for everything else. Do not add new facts or opinions. Keep it about the same length. After the passage, list anything you simplified so much that the meaning might have changed.
If you do this often, save it as a reusable assistant. Our guide to Gemini Gems for teachers shows how, and ChatGPT for Teachers covers the free education plan.
The five options side by side
Tool | Where it works | What you give it | Cost (checked 28 Oct 2026) | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Brisk Change Level | Chrome or Edge extension, on Docs, Word files, PDFs, images and web pages | The open document or page | Free for teachers (Brisk plans page) | Keeps structure and tone, so it rewords rather than summarizes |
MagicSchool Text Leveler | MagicSchool website | Pasted text, uploaded file, URL or audio | Free plan; Plus $8.33/month billed yearly or $12.99 monthly | Needs an account; one reviewer found it clunkier than Brisk |
Diffit | Diffit website | Pasted text, upload, link or topic | Free Basic plan with limits; paid individual plan $14.99/month (our Diffit review) | Rewrote the original more than other tools in one 2025 test |
CoGrader converter | A web page | Pasted text | Free, no account (per a 2025 roundup) | We did not re-check that it is still live |
ChatGPT, Gemini or another chatbot | The chat window | Pasted text plus your prompt | Free tiers exist | Not built for leveling, so it may miss the target grade |
A grade-level label is not a guarantee
Every one of these tools hands back text labeled with a grade, and it is tempting to trust it. Readability formulas are rougher than that. ReadabilityFormulas.com points out that scores for the same text can differ by two, three or more grade levels depending on the formula, and that the formulas measure the length of words and sentences, not how well people understand the material. A text can score “sixth grade” and still lose a sixth grader.
So treat the label as a starting point and run a quick check of your own. This is our advice, not a vendor feature:
- Read the rewrite with the original open. Check names, numbers, dates and cause-and-effect.
- Circle the content words. In science or social studies, terms like “predator” or “treaty” may be the thing you are teaching. Keep them and define them rather than swapping them out.
- Look for what disappeared. Words like “may,” “some” and “often” are easy to lose, and without them a careful claim becomes a false one.
- Test it on one student. Ask someone who reads at that level to tell the passage back to you.
Before you paste student work or someone else’s article
Leveling published text is low risk for privacy, because there is nothing about a student in it. Pasting a student’s essay, an IEP excerpt or anything with a name is different, and it should go through the checks in our AI tool student privacy checklist and your school’s AI use policy. For students with IEPs or students learning English, see our guides to AI tools for special education teachers and AI tools for ESL teachers, since a simpler rewrite is only one of the supports they may need.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no single winner. If the text is already in a Google Doc, Word file, PDF or web page, Brisk Change Level skips the copy and paste. If you want to paste, upload, link or record the text, MagicSchool has the most input options in the roundup we read. If you want questions and several levels at once, Diffit does that. Whichever you pick, read the result against the original before it reaches students.
Yes. Paste the text and name the grade. A 2025 WeAreTeachers roundup warns that a general chatbot is not tailored to leveling and may be less accurate at hitting a specific level, so check the output. The prompt in this guide asks the chatbot to keep your key terms and to flag anything it simplified too far.
Brisk lists a free plan for teachers, MagicSchool has a free plan, and Diffit has a free Basic plan with limits that it does not spell out as a number. Paid tiers add things like unlimited generations on MagicSchool. Plans change, so check each pricing page before you plan a whole unit around one tool.
The help pages and reviews we read describe grade levels, not Lexile scores. We could not verify Lexile output for any of them. If you need a Lexile measure, run the final text through a Lexile tool or your school’s licensed reading program.
Brisk’s help page says Change Level supports most file types, including Google Docs, Word docs, PDFs and images. A 2025 roundup says MagicSchool accepts uploaded files, and Diffit has a help article on uploading a PDF. Scanned or image-heavy pages are more likely to come through with errors, so proofread them.
The WeAreTeachers roundup advises crediting the original source, linking to it where you can, never claiming authorship of the new version, and using it with your own students. It also says to check any laws or rules that apply. This is not legal advice, so ask your school if you plan to share leveled copies beyond your classroom.
Which text is your class struggling with right now, a science chapter, a news article or a primary source? Tell us the grade band in the comments and we will point you to the tool above that fits it best, or see how the three big options compare in Diffit vs MagicSchool vs ChatGPT.