Reading Time Calculator
Reading time for pasted text or a book’s page count at 238 words per minute (silent non-fiction), 260 (fiction) or 183 (aloud), from Brysbaert’s 2019 review. How it works
Use the Reading Time Calculator
About the Reading Time Calculator
Reading time is words ÷ words per minute. Paste text and the reading time calculator counts its words and divides by 238, the average speed of adults reading English non-fiction silently in Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies, or by the same review’s 260 for fiction or 183 for reading aloud. The headline label rounds up to whole minutes, the way blog read-time labels do. Book mode turns pages into words at 250 a page (editable) and gives the hours and the days at your daily reading time.
Reading time by word count
| Words | Aloud, 183 wpm | Silent non-fiction, 238 wpm | Silent fiction, 260 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 33 seconds (1 min read) | 25 seconds (1 min read) | 23 seconds (1 min read) |
| 250 | 1 min 22 sec (2 min read) | 1 min 3 sec (2 min read) | 58 seconds (1 min read) |
| 500 | 2 min 44 sec (3 min read) | 2 min 6 sec (3 min read) | 1 min 55 sec (2 min read) |
| 750 | 4 min 6 sec (5 min read) | 3 min 9 sec (4 min read) | 2 min 53 sec (3 min read) |
| 1,000 | 5 min 28 sec (6 min read) | 4 min 12 sec (5 min read) | 3 min 51 sec (4 min read) |
| 1,500 | 8 min 12 sec (9 min read) | 6 min 18 sec (7 min read) | 5 min 46 sec (6 min read) |
| 2,000 | 10 min 56 sec (11 min read) | 8 min 24 sec (9 min read) | 7 min 42 sec (8 min read) |
| 3,000 | 16 min 24 sec (17 min read) | 12 min 36 sec (13 min read) | 11 min 32 sec (12 min read) |
| 5,000 | 27 min 19 sec (28 min read) | 21 min 1 sec (22 min read) | 19 min 14 sec (20 min read) |
| 10,000 | 54 min 39 sec (55 min read) | 42 min 1 sec (43 min read) | 38 min 28 sec (39 min read) |
The exact time, rounded to the second, with the rounded-up label in brackets. Brysbaert puts most adults at 175 to 300 words per minute for non-fiction and 200 to 320 for fiction, so a real reader can take noticeably more or less time.
How words are counted
| Text | Words counted | Left out |
|---|---|---|
| Don’t stop | 2 | (none) |
| well-known state-of-the-art | 2 | (none) |
| https://example.com/a/b?x=1 | 1 | (none) |
| 3.14 and 1,000 and $5 | 5 | (none) |
| 日本語のテキスト and English | 2 | 8 Chinese or Japanese characters |
A word is a run of characters between spaces that holds a letter or a digit. Chinese and Japanese text has no spaces between words, so its characters are counted separately and left out of the time.
Time to read a book by page count
| Pages | Words at 250 a page | Silent non-fiction, 238 wpm | Days at 30 min a day | Silent fiction, 260 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 25,000 | 1 hr 45 min | 4 | 1 hr 36 min |
| 200 | 50,000 | 3 hr 30 min | 8 | 3 hr 12 min |
| 300 | 75,000 | 5 hr 15 min | 11 | 4 hr 48 min |
| 400 | 100,000 | 7 hr | 15 | 6 hr 24 min |
| 500 | 125,000 | 8 hr 45 min | 18 | 8 hr |
Book mode at 250 words per page, a rule of thumb for a paperback page rather than a measured figure; the days column is at 238 words per minute, rounded up to whole days.
Frequently asked questions
- How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
- About 4 min 12 sec silently at 238 words per minute (a 5 min read), 3 min 51 sec at the fiction average of 260, and 5 min 28 sec aloud at 183.
- What is the average reading speed?
- For silent reading of English non-fiction, about 238 words per minute, with most adults between 175 and 300. For fiction the review gives 260, with most adults between 200 and 320. It notes that these averages are lower than the figures often quoted in scientific and popular writing, so a label based on a faster speed will understate the time.
- How many words is a 5 minute read?
- At 238 words per minute, 5 minutes is 1,190 words. The calculator labels anything from 954 to 1,191 words a 5 min read, because it rounds the exact time up to whole minutes.
- Why does the label say 2 min read when the time is 1 min 3 sec?
- The headline label rounds up to whole minutes and is at least 1 min read whenever there are words, as blog read-time labels usually are. 250 words at 238 words per minute is 1 min 3 sec, so the label is 2 min read; the unrounded estimate is shown beside the word count.
- How long does it take to read a 300-page book?
- About 5 hr 15 min at 238 words per minute, if a page holds 250 words: 75,000 words, 57.1 pages an hour, or 11 days at 30 minutes a day. Pick Book (pages), type the pages and the minutes you read a day, and change the words per page to match your edition; you can also type your own speed, a whole number from 50 to 1,000 words per minute.
- Can I use it to time a speech or presentation?
- As a first guess. The aloud preset, 183 words per minute, is the average for reading a text aloud, and a talk with pauses, slides and emphasis usually runs slower. Read one paragraph of your script out loud at your talk pace, count its words and the seconds it took, and type that speed: 1,500 words at 183 words per minute is 8 min 12 sec, at 130 it is 11 min 32 sec.
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