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Build my resume

What each ATS actually does to your resume.

Only what the 19 vendors publish, with a source on every line.

Will your file get through?

Your file
Size
  • GreenhouseParses up to 2.5 MBRead
  • Oracle Taleo1 MB default, 5 MB maxRead
  • SmartRecruiters2 MB limitRead
  • Ashby50 MB limitRead
  • Workable5 MB limitRead
  • ManatalNo size limit publishedNo limit published
  • SAP SuccessFactors5 MB limitRead
  • BambooHR20 MB limitRead
  • JobviteNo size limit publishedNo limit published
  • RecruiteeNo size limit publishedNo limit published
  • Workday5 MB limitRead
  • Lever10 MB limitRead
  • iCIMSNo size limit publishedNo limit published
  • JazzHR5 MB limitRead
  • Breezy HRNo size limit publishedNo limit published
  • PersonioNo size limit publishedNo limit published
  • Dayforce5 MB limitRead
  • PinpointNo size limit publishedNo limit published
  • ComeetNo size limit publishedNo limit published

Read by 11 of 19From each vendor's published limits

What each system takes, side by side.

SystemAccepted typesSize limitParsing engine
GreenhousePDFDOCDOCXRTFTXT100 MBparses ≤ 2.5 MBNot published
Oracle TaleoPDFDOCDOCXRTFTXTHTMLODTWPD5 MB1 MB by defaultVaries by employer
SmartRecruitersPDFDOCDOCXRTFJPGPNG2 MBTextkernel
AshbyPDFDOCDOCX50 MBNot published
WorkablePDFDOCDOCXRTFHTMLODT5 MBNot published
ManatalPDFDOCDOCXRTFNot publishedManatal (in-house)
SAP SuccessFactorsDOCXPDFTXTTIFFJPGBMPGIF5 MBTextkernel
BambooHRPDFDOCDOCXBMPXLSXLSXCSVTXTJPGJPEGTIFRTFTIFFGIFPNGZIP20 MBNot published
JobvitePDFDOCDOCXTXTRTFHTMLHTMPNGJPEGJPGGIFXLSXNot publishedNot published
RecruiteePDFDOCDOCXODTRTFTXTJPGPNGNot publishedNot published
WorkdayPDFDOCDOCXHTMLTXT5 MBNot published
LeverPDFDOCDOCXRTFTXT10 MBNot published
iCIMSPDFDOCDOCXRTFTXTODTWPDWRIHTMHTMLNot publishedNot published
JazzHRPDFDOCDOCXRTFODTTXT5 MBNot published
Breezy HRDOCDOCXPAGESPDFRTFTXTNot publishedNot published
PersonioPDFDOCXNot publishedTextkernel
DayforceDOCDOCXPDFRTF5 MBNot published
PinpointPDFDOCXNot publishedNot published
ComeetPDFDOCDOCXNot publishedNot published

Every value here is sourced on the system's own page. “Not published” means the vendor does not publish that number, not that there is no limit. Where a vendor ships a lower default than its maximum, both are shown: the default is the one most employers are still on.

Fewer parsers than there are systems.

Applicant tracking systems mostly license parsing rather than writing their own. So the practical unit is not the ATS, it is the engine behind it. Fixing your file for one member of a group fixes it for the rest.

TextkernelParses for 3 of the systems here

SmartRecruitersSAP SuccessFactorsPersonio

The number you keep seeing was made up.

You have probably read that 75% of resumes are rejected by an applicant tracking system before a human sees them. It appears in news articles, university careers pages and the marketing of nearly every resume tool, including tools that charge you to solve it.

It traces back to a 2012 sales pitch by a company called Preptel, which sold resume optimisation services and went out of business the following year. No study, sample or methodology was ever published. The HR consultant who went looking for the evidence found, in her words, no conclusive statistical evidence of the premise, merely conjecture.

What these systems genuinely do is parse, store, rank and filter. Applications do get screened out automatically, but by knockout questions and search filters that a hiring team configured (work authorisation, minimum years, employment gaps), not by software forming an opinion about your resume. A resume that parses badly still reaches a person; it just arrives as a worse record of you, harder to search and missing the fields recruiters filter on.

That distinction is the reason this site shows you extracted text instead of a score. Formatting is worth fixing because it decides what the record says, not because a robot is about to reject you.

Source: HiringThing, ATS mythsSource: The Interview Guys, origin investigation

Pick the system you are applying through.

  • Greenhouse

    Greenhouse Software

    PDFDOCDOCXRTFTXT

    Greenhouse takes PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF and TXT, and will not parse a resume larger than 2.5 MB. Its own support docs name what makes a parse fail: columns, contact details in a header, abbreviated job titles and more.

  • PDFDOCDOCXRTFTXTHTMLODTWPD

    Oracle ships Taleo with a 1 MB default attachment limit and no resume parser of its own. Parsing only works if the employer has enabled a third-party partner integration, so behaviour differs from one Taleo site to the next.

    Parser: Varies by employer

  • SmartRecruiters

    SmartRecruiters

    PDFDOCDOCXRTFJPGPNG

    SmartRecruiters accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, JPG and PNG at 2 MB per file, and its CEO named Textkernel as the parsing engine, whose own documentation warns about PDFs more bluntly than any resume blog does.

    Parser: Textkernel

  • Ashby

    Ashby

    PDFDOCDOCX

    Ashby accepts PDF, DOC and DOCX up to 50 MB but does not support Markdown. Its docs name the two reasons a resume fails to parse, and its better parser is an opt-in feature some employers never switch on.

  • Workable

    Workable

    PDFDOCDOCXRTFHTMLODT

    Workable accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML and ODT for a resume, with a 5 MB ceiling, while other attachments on the same form are allowed four times that size.

  • Manatal

    Manatal

    PDFDOCDOCXRTF

    Manatal takes PDF, DOC, DOCX and RTF, parses every resume the moment it lands with a parser it built rather than licensed, and keeps the original file where recruiters can open it.

    Parser: Manatal (in-house)

  • DOCXPDFTXTTIFFJPGBMPGIF

    SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting parses resumes with Textkernel in 15 languages, takes resumes up to 5 MB, and says plainly that parsing is not always accurate. What SAP's own documentation says, with links.

    Parser: Textkernel

  • BambooHR

    BambooHR

    PDFDOCDOCXBMPXLSXLSXCSVTXTJPGJPEGTIFRTFTIFFGIFPNGZIP

    BambooHR takes uploads up to 20 MB in common formats including PDF, DOC and DOCX. Its help center does not describe resume parsing: recruiters open your resume as a document, and the application form is filled in by you.

  • Jobvite

    Employ Inc.

    PDFDOCDOCXTXTRTFHTMLHTMPNGJPEGJPGGIFXLSX

    Jobvite accepts twelve file types for a resume, from PDF and DOCX to images and spreadsheets, but its own help centre says scanned or locked PDFs cannot be added and image files are not parsed.

  • Recruitee

    Tellent

    PDFDOCDOCXODTRTFTXTJPGPNG

    Recruitee takes PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF and TXT, plus JPG and PNG images of a CV. Its help centre says the parser needs a readable email address, which is usually missed in a header or footer, and that highly visual CVs are the most common reason a file cannot be read.

  • Workday

    Workday

    PDFDOCDOCXHTMLTXT

    Workday's own careers site takes DOC, DOCX, HTML, PDF or TXT resumes up to 5 MB. Its documentation says parsing results vary with format and word order, and that images and image-based styles get in the way.

  • Lever

    Lever

    PDFDOCDOCXRTFTXT

    Lever takes resume files up to 10 MB and parses Word, PDF, RTF, WordPerfect, HTML and OpenDocument files, but not images. Its help centre is specific about when a parse fails, and most of the reasons are about how the file arrived rather than how it looks.

  • iCIMS

    iCIMS

    PDFDOCDOCXRTFTXTODTWPDWRIHTMHTML

    iCIMS extracts text from PDF, Word, RTF, plain text, HTML and OpenDocument resumes by default and fills profile fields from the file you upload. It does not publish a resume size limit.

  • JazzHR

    JazzHR

    PDFDOCDOCXRTFODTTXT

    JazzHR takes PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, ODT and TXT resumes up to 5 MB. Its own support docs say a scanned resume is treated as an image: no name, no email, nothing searchable.

  • Breezy HR

    Breezy HR

    DOCDOCXPAGESPDFRTFTXT

    Breezy HR takes DOC, DOCX, Pages, PDF, RTF and TXT resumes. Its docs say a scanned resume, or one in an unsupported language, is not parsed, and its AI review tools skip any resume that wasn't.

  • Personio

    Personio

    PDFDOCX

    Personio parses PDF and DOCX CVs with Textkernel, if the employer has opted in. Its own help centre lists ten reasons a parse fails, from headers and tables to 8 pt text and skill bar charts.

    Parser: Textkernel

  • Dayforce

    Dayforce (formerly Ceridian)

    DOCDOCXPDFRTF

    Dayforce takes DOC, DOCX, PDF and RTF resumes up to 5 MB. Import Resume parses the file into your candidate profile, and uploading again overwrites what the last one filled in.

  • Pinpoint

    Pinpoint

    PDFDOCX

    Pinpoint takes a CV as PDF or DOCX, and nothing else. Its software reads the CV on upload to write the candidate summary recruiters see first.

  • Comeet

    Spark Hire

    PDFDOCDOCX

    Comeet, now Spark Hire Recruit, takes PDF, DOC and DOCX resumes and parses them in 39 listed languages. Arabic and Korean are not among them, and a file that is not a true PDF may not even open.

Greenhouse, Oracle Taleo, SmartRecruiters, Ashby, Workable, Manatal, SAP SuccessFactors, BambooHR, Jobvite, Recruitee, Workday, Lever, iCIMS, JazzHR, Breezy HR, Personio, Dayforce, Pinpoint and Comeet are trademarks of their owners. ATSPrep isn't affiliated with them.

ATS resume basics, answered plainly.

Want to start from a clean layout? Every ATS-friendly resume template is one column of real text. To test a file you already have, use the free ATS resume checker.

What is an ATS?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software an employer uses to collect job applications, store them and move candidates through hiring. When you apply online, it usually parses your resume into a candidate record that recruiters search and filter. Greenhouse, Oracle Taleo, SmartRecruiters, Ashby, Workable, Manatal, SAP SuccessFactors, BambooHR, Jobvite, Recruitee, Workday, Lever, iCIMS, JazzHR, Breezy HR, Personio, Dayforce, Pinpoint and Comeet are all examples.

What is an ATS-friendly resume?

A resume that applicant tracking software can read correctly: real text rather than an image, one column in reading order, standard section headings like Experience, Education and Skills, and the skills from the job posting spelled the way the posting spells them. There is no special ATS file format.

How do I make my resume ATS friendly?

Use a single column and standard headings. Keep your email and phone in the body under your name, because text in page headers and footers tends to come out at the end. Avoid text boxes, tables and text inside images. Send a text-based PDF or a DOCX, whichever the posting asks for, and use the posting's wording for skills you really have.

How can I check if my resume is ATS friendly?

Read it back the way a parser does. The free ATS resume checker pulls the text out of your PDF or Word file and shows what came through and in what order, so you can see whether a column, table or contact line moved. It runs in your browser, and your first check needs no sign-up.

Does an ATS reject resumes automatically?

Not on its own judgment. Applications are screened out by knockout questions and filters the hiring team sets up, such as work authorization or minimum years of experience. A resume that parses badly still reaches a person, just as a messier record that is harder to search. The often-quoted 75% rejection figure has no study behind it.

Check your own file with the X-Ray.

The only way to know a parser can read your resume is to read it back. Export a PDF from the Studio and the X-Ray re-opens that exact file, pulls the text out the way an extractor does, and shows you what survived and in what order.

Open the StudioTrack your applications

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