What are ATS resume keywords?

ATS keywords are terms from the job description that Applicant Tracking Systems scan for — skills, tools, certifications, and hard requirements. If your resume lacks them, you are filtered before a human sees it. Over 97% of Fortune 500 use ATS like Workday, Greenhouse, and Lever.

How many keywords should I add to my resume?

Add 3–5 high-weight missing terms to Skills and weave 2–3 into Experience bullets with proof. Don't stuff 50 terms you can't defend — parsers and recruiters flag keyword stuffing. Use TF-IDF weighting: rare, specific terms rank higher than generic words.

Where do I place ATS keywords on my resume?

Skills section first (highest ATS weight), then Experience bullets with one number each, then Summary with 3–4 core terms. Match JD spelling exactly: PostgreSQL vs Postgres, Salesforce vs CRM.

Are these keywords really ATS-tested?

Yes. Our templates and keyword map are parse-tested against Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, and iCIMS. Single-column text-only layouts score 20–30% higher than two-column graphic resumes on those parsers.

ATS · Keywords · 2026

500+ ATS resume keywords for 2026

Copy-paste keywords that pass Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, and iCIMS. Organized by category with TF-IDF weighting — rare, specific terms rank higher than generic filler. Add 3–5 missing high-weight terms to Skills and one bullet each with a number to lift a 45% ATS score to 80%+.

Check my resume →Browse ATS templates

How this list was built: 2,000+ terms from our synonymMap (alias → canonical) with weights 1–10 and category mapping. Shown here are weight ≥7 (high ATS impact). Full 500+ available via ATS checker synonym expansion.

Programming Languages

Languages hiring managers search for first.

typescriptpythonjavascriptgojavaswiftkotlinrustcsharpcpp

Weight ≥7 · 10 top terms · check your match

Frontend & Web

Frameworks and tooling parsers scan in Workday/Greenhouse.

reactnext.jsvueangularsveltetailwind csstanstack query

Weight ≥7 · 7 top terms · check your match

Backend & APIs

Server, API, and service keywords.

nodejsnest.jsfastapispring bootexpress.jsdjangorailsprisma

Weight ≥7 · 8 top terms · check your match

Databases

SQL, NoSQL, vector, and warehousing terms.

postgresqlmongodbvector databasesnowflakerediselasticsearchdynamodbamazon redshift

Weight ≥7 · 8 top terms · check your match

Cloud & Infra

AWS, GCP, Azure managed services and IaC.

amazon web servicesgoogle cloud platformmicrosoft azure

Weight ≥7 · 3 top terms · check your match

DevOps & CI/CD

Containers, orchestration, and deployment.

kubernetesdockerterraformsite reliability engineeringgithub actionsinfrastructure as codeci cdplatform engineeringhelmargo cdgitopsopentelemetryprometheusgrafana

Weight ≥7 · 14 top terms · check your match

Data & Analytics

ETL, warehousing, and BI keywords.

apache kafkaapache sparkdbtdatabricksapache airflowdelta lakeapache icebergetl

Weight ≥7 · 8 top terms · check your match

ML / AI

Modeling, LLM, and data science terms.

large language modelgenerative airetrieval augmented generationai agentsmachine learningdeep learningpytorchopenaiprompt engineeringtensorflowhugging facelangchain

Weight ≥7 · 12 top terms · check your match

Security

Compliance and hardening keywords.

cybersecuritypenetration testingapplication securityzero trust security

Weight ≥7 · 4 top terms · check your match

How to use these keywords without lying

Only include terms you can discuss in an interview. If JD says “Figma” and you know Sketch, write “Wireframing (Sketch, Figma basics)” not “Figma expert.”
Mirror JD spelling exactly — ATS does exact-string on many deployments. JS → JavaScript is normalized by our checker but list the JD’s canonical term.
Place in Skills first, then one bullet each: “Built ETL in Python (pandas) processing 2M rows/day, cut runtime 40%.”
Re-run ATS checker until 75%+. One cycle often lifts 45% → 80%+.

97%

Fortune 500 use ATS

7.4s

Recruiter scan time

4×

More callbacks when keyword-optimized

Free forever

Build your free resume now

Paste your JD into the free ATS checker, add 3–5 missing keywords, and download your PDF — no watermark. No sign up, no watermark, no paywall.

Start building for free →Browse templates

Frequently asked questions

What are ATS resume keywords?: ATS keywords are terms from the job description that Applicant Tracking Systems scan for — skills, tools, certifications, and hard requirements. If your resume lacks them, you are filtered before a human sees it. Over 97% of Fortune 500 use ATS like Workday, Greenhouse, and Lever.
How many keywords should I add to my resume?: Add 3–5 high-weight missing terms to Skills and weave 2–3 into Experience bullets with proof. Don't stuff 50 terms you can't defend — parsers and recruiters flag keyword stuffing. Use TF-IDF weighting: rare, specific terms rank higher than generic words.
Where do I place ATS keywords on my resume?: Skills section first (highest ATS weight), then Experience bullets with one number each, then Summary with 3–4 core terms. Match JD spelling exactly: PostgreSQL vs Postgres, Salesforce vs CRM.
Are these keywords really ATS-tested?: Yes. Our templates and keyword map are parse-tested against Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, and iCIMS. Single-column text-only layouts score 20–30% higher than two-column graphic resumes on those parsers.