diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 32f21f36a..7b315df26 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 * ensure a trailing blank line also if the input is cached (#867).
 * Preserve trailing blank line in roxygen examples to simplify concatenation of
   examples (#880).
+* added guarantee that styled code is parsable (#892).
 * An error is now thrown on styling if input unicode characters can't be 
   correctly parsed for Windows and R < 4.2 (#883).
 * Fix argument name `filetype` in Example for `style_dir()` (#855).
diff --git a/R/communicate.R b/R/communicate.R
index e4e0b58dd..3e50e272d 100644
--- a/R/communicate.R
+++ b/R/communicate.R
@@ -4,11 +4,11 @@
 #' changes carefully.
 #' @param changed Boolean with indicating for each file whether or not it has
 #'   been changed.
-#' @inheritParams can_verify_roundtrip
+#' @inheritParams parse_tree_must_be_identical
 #' @keywords internal
 communicate_warning <- function(changed, transformers) {
   if (any(changed, na.rm = TRUE) &&
-    !can_verify_roundtrip(transformers) &&
+    !parse_tree_must_be_identical(transformers) &&
     !getOption("styler.quiet", FALSE)
   ) {
     cat("Please review the changes carefully!", fill = TRUE)
diff --git a/R/transform-files.R b/R/transform-files.R
index 839245bc5..764c90f91 100644
--- a/R/transform-files.R
+++ b/R/transform-files.R
@@ -246,9 +246,11 @@ parse_transform_serialize_r <- function(text,
     ) %>%
     unlist()
 
-  if (can_verify_roundtrip(transformers)) {
-    verify_roundtrip(text, text_out)
-  }
+  verify_roundtrip(
+    text, text_out,
+    parsable_only = !parse_tree_must_be_identical(transformers)
+  )
+
   text_out <- convert_newlines_to_linebreaks(text_out)
   if (cache_is_activated()) {
     cache_by_expression(text_out, transformers, more_specs = more_specs)
@@ -349,7 +351,7 @@ apply_transformers <- function(pd_nested, transformers) {
 #' @param transformers The list of transformer functions used for styling.
 #'   Needed for reverse engineering the scope.
 #' @keywords internal
-can_verify_roundtrip <- function(transformers) {
+parse_tree_must_be_identical <- function(transformers) {
   length(transformers$token) == 0
 }
 
@@ -357,10 +359,15 @@ can_verify_roundtrip <- function(transformers) {
 #'
 #' If scope was set to "line_breaks" or lower (compare [tidyverse_style()]),
 #' we can compare the expression before and after styling and return an error if
-#' it is not the same. Note that this method ignores roxygen code examples and
+#' it is not the same.
+#' If that's not possible, a weaker guarantee that we want to give is that the
+#' resulting code is parsable.
+#' @param parsable_only If we should only check for the code to be parsable.
+#' @inheritParams expressions_are_identical
+#' @section Limitation:
+#' Note that this method ignores roxygen code examples and
 #' comments and no verification can be conducted if tokens are in the styling
 #' scope.
-#' @inheritParams expressions_are_identical
 #' @importFrom rlang abort
 #' @examples
 #' styler:::verify_roundtrip("a+1", "a + 1")
@@ -369,8 +376,19 @@ can_verify_roundtrip <- function(transformers) {
 #' styler:::verify_roundtrip("a+1", "b - 3")
 #' }
 #' @keywords internal
-verify_roundtrip <- function(old_text, new_text) {
-  if (!expressions_are_identical(old_text, new_text)) {
+verify_roundtrip <- function(old_text, new_text, parsable_only = FALSE) {
+  if (parsable_only) {
+    rlang::with_handlers(
+      parse_safely(new_text),
+      error = function(e) {
+        rlang::abort(paste0(
+          "Styling resulted in code that isn't parsable. This should not ",
+          "happen. Please file a bug report on GitHub ",
+          "(https://github.com/r-lib/styler/issues) using a reprex."
+        ))
+      }
+    )
+  } else if (!expressions_are_identical(old_text, new_text)) {
     msg <- paste(
       "The expression evaluated before the styling is not the same as the",
       "expression after styling. This should not happen. Please file a",
diff --git a/man/can_verify_roundtrip.Rd b/man/parse_tree_must_be_identical.Rd
similarity index 82%
rename from man/can_verify_roundtrip.Rd
rename to man/parse_tree_must_be_identical.Rd
index 1bd993b1d..a9204cf03 100644
--- a/man/can_verify_roundtrip.Rd
+++ b/man/parse_tree_must_be_identical.Rd
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 % Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
 % Please edit documentation in R/transform-files.R
-\name{can_verify_roundtrip}
-\alias{can_verify_roundtrip}
+\name{parse_tree_must_be_identical}
+\alias{parse_tree_must_be_identical}
 \title{Check whether a round trip verification can be carried out}
 \usage{
-can_verify_roundtrip(transformers)
+parse_tree_must_be_identical(transformers)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{transformers}{The list of transformer functions used for styling.
diff --git a/man/verify_roundtrip.Rd b/man/verify_roundtrip.Rd
index c58e3ee0e..ecfcee948 100644
--- a/man/verify_roundtrip.Rd
+++ b/man/verify_roundtrip.Rd
@@ -4,20 +4,29 @@
 \alias{verify_roundtrip}
 \title{Verify the styling}
 \usage{
-verify_roundtrip(old_text, new_text)
+verify_roundtrip(old_text, new_text, parsable_only = FALSE)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{old_text}{The initial expression in its character representation.}
 
 \item{new_text}{The styled expression in its character representation.}
+
+\item{parsable_only}{If we should only check for the code to be parsable.}
 }
 \description{
 If scope was set to "line_breaks" or lower (compare \code{\link[=tidyverse_style]{tidyverse_style()}}),
 we can compare the expression before and after styling and return an error if
-it is not the same. Note that this method ignores roxygen code examples and
+it is not the same.
+If that's not possible, a weaker guarantee that we want to give is that the
+resulting code is parsable.
+}
+\section{Limitation}{
+
+Note that this method ignores roxygen code examples and
 comments and no verification can be conducted if tokens are in the styling
 scope.
 }
+
 \examples{
 styler:::verify_roundtrip("a+1", "a + 1")
 styler:::verify_roundtrip("a+1", "a + 1 # comments are dropped")
diff --git a/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in.R b/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in.R
index 0b62400bf..3ceeab053 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in.R
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ x <- '	2' # there is a tab emebbed (created with writeLines("x <- '\t2'"))
 x <- '\001'
 '\x01'
 
-"\01"
-'\01'
+"\001"
+'\001'
 
 #' things
 #'
diff --git a/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in_tree b/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in_tree
index 9b70d3ba2..8083077fa 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in_tree
+++ b/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-in_tree
@@ -42,10 +42,10 @@ ROOT (token: short_text [lag_newlines/spaces] {pos_id})
  ¦       °--STR_CONST: '\001 [0/0] {40}               
  ¦--expr: '\x01 [1/0] {43}                            
  ¦   °--STR_CONST: '\x01 [0/0] {42}                   
- ¦--expr: "\01" [2/0] {45}                            
- ¦   °--STR_CONST: "\0" [0/0] {44}                    
- ¦--expr: '\01' [1/0] {47}                            
- ¦   °--STR_CONST: '\0' [0/0] {46}                    
+ ¦--expr: "\001 [2/0] {45}                            
+ ¦   °--STR_CONST: "\001 [0/0] {44}                   
+ ¦--expr: '\001 [1/0] {47}                            
+ ¦   °--STR_CONST: '\001 [0/0] {46}                   
  ¦--COMMENT: #' th [2/0] {48}                          
  ¦--COMMENT: #' [1/0] {49}                             
  ¦--COMMENT: #' @e [1/0] {50}                          
diff --git a/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-out.R b/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-out.R
index 9b383911d..c35989e3f 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-out.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/escaping/basic-escape-out.R
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ x <- "	2" # there is a tab emebbed (created with writeLines("x <- '\t2'"))
 x <- "\001"
 "\x01"
 
-"\0"
-"\0"
+"\001"
+"\001"
 
 #' things
 #'
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-roundtrip.R b/tests/testthat/test-roundtrip.R
index 406b111b7..52b172803 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-roundtrip.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-roundtrip.R
@@ -1,11 +1,15 @@
 context("roundtrip works")
 
 
-test_that("can_verify_roundtrip works", {
-  expect_true(can_verify_roundtrip(tidyverse_style(scope = "line_breaks")))
-  expect_true(can_verify_roundtrip(tidyverse_style(scope = "spaces")))
-  expect_true(can_verify_roundtrip(tidyverse_style(scope = "indention")))
-  expect_false(can_verify_roundtrip(tidyverse_style(scope = "tokens")))
+test_that("parse_tree_must_be_identical works", {
+  expect_true(
+    parse_tree_must_be_identical(tidyverse_style(scope = "line_breaks"))
+  )
+  expect_true(parse_tree_must_be_identical(tidyverse_style(scope = "spaces")))
+  expect_true(
+    parse_tree_must_be_identical(tidyverse_style(scope = "indention"))
+  )
+  expect_false(parse_tree_must_be_identical(tidyverse_style(scope = "tokens")))
 })
 
 test_that("correct styling does not give an error", {
@@ -15,3 +19,15 @@ test_that("correct styling does not give an error", {
 test_that("corrupt styling does give an error", {
   expect_error(verify_roundtrip("1-1", "1 + 1"), "bug")
 })
+
+
+test_that("the output is asserted to be parsable", {
+  expect_error(
+    verify_roundtrip("1+1", "1 +) 1", parsable_only = TRUE),
+    "Styling resulted in code that isn't parsable."
+  )
+
+  expect_silent(
+    verify_roundtrip("1+1", "1 + 1", parsable_only = TRUE)
+  )
+})