How much passive voice is acceptable?
For web copy, keep passive sentences under 10% — the ceiling Yoast's readability check uses. For reports, methods sections and legal drafting, 15–30% is normal. Our Passive Voice Index of 146 public documents puts classic fiction at a median of 13%, modern State of the Union messages at 10%, 19th-century inaugural addresses at 38–45%, and the U.S. Constitution at 54%. The right number depends on what you are writing, not on a rule.
The 10% rule and where it comes from
Yoast SEO’s readability analysis gives a green bullet when fewer than 10% of your sentences contain passive voice. Yoast’s own methodology note says they discourage passive voice altogether but set the maximum at 10% because some sentences are awkward in the active. Hemingway and most other readability tools have adopted the same number, so for blog posts, landing pages and email copy, 10% is the de facto standard.
It is a standard for web copy. It was never meant for a lab report or a statute.
What real documents do
From our Passive Voice Index (share of sentences containing a passive construction, same engine throughout):
| Kind of writing | Median passive sentences | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Shakespeare’s plays (dialogue) | 3% | 2.6–3.3% |
| Children’s fiction | 4–9% | — |
| State of the Union, 1981–2006 | 10% | 5–17% |
| Classic novels (Austen, Melville, Chesterton) | 13% | 9–23% |
| Inaugural addresses, 1980–2025 | 14% | 10–20% |
| King James Bible | 20% | — |
| Declaration of Independence | 21% | — |
| Inaugural addresses, 1789–1849 | 45% | 24–75% |
| U.S. Constitution | 54% | — |
The spread is driven by two things: how much of the text is dialogue or first-person narration (low passive) and how long the sentences are (long sentences, more passives). Across the Index, sentence length and passive share correlate at r = 0.78.
Targets by type of writing
| You are writing | Aim for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Web copy, email marketing, blog posts | under 10% | Readers skim; the doer should be obvious at a glance. |
| Customer service and complaint responses | under 10% | Passive reads as evasive when someone wants to know who will act. |
| Business reports and memos | 10–20% | Some status updates are naturally passive (“The audit has been completed”). |
| News | 10–20% | Agentless passives are conventional when the actor is unknown or obvious. |
| Academic — discussion and introduction | 10–20% | Active where the actor matters, per APA. |
| Academic — methods | 20–40% | The procedure is the subject. |
| Regulations, contracts, policy wording | 20–40% | Rules apply to whoever reads them; the law is the actor. |
| Fiction | author’s call | Dialogue drives it down; description drives it up. |
Measure it two ways
Percentage of sentences is what Yoast reports and what most people mean. It rewards short sentences, which is not entirely a flaw — short sentences are also easier to read. Passives per 100 words is fairer when comparing texts with very different sentence lengths; the checker reports both, and shows your text against the Index medians on a benchmark bar.
Questions people ask
- What percentage of passive voice is OK?
Under 10% of sentences for web and marketing copy (Yoast’s threshold). Up to about 20% for business reports and news. Higher is normal in scientific methods sections, regulations and legal drafting, where the procedure or the rule is the actor.
- What does Yoast's passive voice check do?
It counts sentences that contain a passive construction and turns the readability bullet orange or red when the share exceeds 10% of sentences. Yoast’s linguists chose 10% to discourage the passive while allowing for sentences that are awkward in the active.
- Does Google penalise passive voice?
No. There is no passive-voice ranking signal. Readability can affect how people engage with a page, which is why SEO tools measure it, but the percentage itself is not a ranking factor.
- How is the passive percentage calculated?
Sentences containing at least one passive construction, divided by total sentences. Our checker also reports passives per 100 words, which is less affected by sentence length.
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