What is the average reading speed?

238 words a minute for adult silent reading of English non-fiction. That figure comes from a 2019 review that pooled 190 separate reading studies, and it is the default here. It is lower than most people expect, and much lower than the numbers speed reading courses quote. Reading for detail or on unfamiliar technical material is closer to 150, a confident reader on familiar material is around 300, and skimming for the gist runs at 450 or more. All four are on the tool, and the same text is timed at every one of them so you can see how much the choice of speed is doing.

How is speaking time different from reading time?

Silent reading and speaking use separate paces. At the default 150 speaking WPM, 1,000 words takes about 6 minutes 40 seconds; at 238 reading WPM it takes about 4 minutes 10 seconds. Edit either pace to match your rehearsal or reading habits. Pauses, slide changes and audience responses are additional time that a word count cannot measure.

How is the word count worked out?

With the Unicode word-breaking rules, through the browser's own segmenter, rather than by splitting on spaces. That matters in two places. A hyphenated word such as state-of-the-art counts as one word, which is what every word counter people have used does, and a naive split would call it four. Chinese and Japanese are written without spaces, so they are segmented into words instead of being counted as one enormous word. Where a browser is too old to have the segmenter, a Unicode-aware fallback does the same job, and Chinese falls back to one word per character, which is close for Chinese and rough for Japanese.

How long does it take to read 1,000 words?

About 4 minutes 10 seconds at the 238 words a minute average, 6 minutes 40 seconds at a careful 150, 3 minutes 20 seconds at a fast 300, and around 2 minutes 10 seconds skimming at 450. Read aloud at 150 words a minute it is 6 minutes 40 seconds. Times are shown to the nearest ten seconds, because a figure like 4 minutes 12 seconds claims a precision the speed estimate cannot support.

What does the reading ease score mean?

It is the Flesch reading ease score, worked out from the average sentence length and the average number of syllables per word. 90 and above is very easy, around a fifth grade reading level; 60 to 69 is plain English at an eighth to ninth grade level; below 30 is a college graduate reading level. Short sentences and short words push the score up. The syllable count behind it is an estimate, since English syllables have no exact rule without a dictionary, so treat the score as a direction rather than a measurement. The formula is built for English, so no score is shown for text the syllable estimator cannot read.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. The counting and the arithmetic run in the page itself, so a manuscript, a client script or an unpublished post never leaves your machine, and there is no size limit imposed on what you paste. A draft of up to 50,000 characters is kept in this browser's own storage so it is still there when you come back; anything longer is timed in full but not saved. Clearing the box with the Clear button clears the saved copy too.

Can I convert a word count to minutes without pasting text?

Choose Word count and enter the total. The tool divides it by each selected pace and displays both reading and speaking durations. At 150 WPM, 500 words is about 3 minutes 20 seconds, 1,500 words is 10 minutes and 2,000 words is about 13 minutes 20 seconds. Numerical variations use the same calculator.

How long does it take to read a page, a chapter or a book?

Use Page count with an average words-per-page figure, or enter the actual word count. Ten pages at 250 words per page contains an estimated 2,500 words, which takes about 10 minutes 30 seconds at 238 WPM. A textbook, comic, illustrated book and a different edition can have very different page densities. The tool has no book-title database and does not infer word counts from a title.

How many words fit in a five-minute speech?

Choose Target minutes. At 150 speaking WPM, five minutes gives a 750-word budget, three minutes gives 450 words and ten minutes gives 1,500. The tool rounds a fractional word budget down. Leave time for pauses and practice aloud to test the estimate.

Does this tool measure my reading speed or run a timer?

It estimates duration from a supplied pace; it does not record elapsed time, test comprehension, start a stopwatch or generate a teleprompter. If you already measured your WPM, type that pace into Reading WPM.

Reading Time Calculator

Estimate how long an article, essay, chapter or script takes to read silently or aloud. Paste the text, enter a known word count, or supply pages with your own average words per page. Silent reading starts at 238 words per minute; speaking starts at 150, and both can be changed. Target minutes reverses the calculation to plan a word budget for a talk or reading session. Pasted text also gives word, character, sentence and paragraph counts and an approximate English Flesch reading ease score. The calculation runs in your browser.

Your text256 words

Reading time is one division: the words in a piece, divided by the speed of the person reading it. The words are countable. The speed is a choice, and almost every calculator makes that choice for you without saying which number it picked.

The default here is 238 words a minute, the figure a review of 190 reading studies put on adult silent reading of English non-fiction. Reading aloud is slower, around 150, because the mouth is the bottleneck rather than the eye. Both are on screen at once, so a script is never planned from the wrong one.

The gap between the speeds is why a single number is worth so little on its own. This sample takes about three times as long at a careful 150 words a minute as it does skimmed at 450, and every reading time badge at the top of an article picked one of those speeds without saying which. Change the speed below and watch the figure move: that movement is the honest error bar on any reading time estimate.

Everything else here is counted rather than estimated. Words come from the browser's Unicode word segmenter, so a hyphenated word counts once and Chinese is split into words instead of being read as one long one. Sentences split on terminal punctuation with titles and abbreviations skipped, so Dr. Smith does not end one. The reading ease score is the single estimate on the page: it needs a syllable count, and English syllables have no exact rule without a dictionary.

Reading time238 WPM

1 minto read silently

1 min 40 secSpeaking at 150 WPM

Words: 256
Characters: 1,425
Sentences: 13
Paragraphs: 4

Approximate Flesch reading ease: 68.5, Standard.

Silent-reading speed

Reading WPM

Speaking WPM

Headline

Speaking time: 1 min 40 sec

Reading time: 1 min

Status: Estimate

Assumptions. Word counts are exact. Reading time is the count divided by the speed you choose, and the speed is the estimate; the 238 words a minute default is the measured adult average for silent reading. The reading-ease score uses a syllable estimate and is approximate. Speaking defaults to 150 WPM and can be changed. Durations round to ten seconds; pauses, performance and comprehension can change actual time.

The same length at different reading speeds

Speed	WPM	Reading time	Use
Slow	150	1 min 40 sec	A careful read of unfamiliar or technical material, and about the pace of speech.
Average	238	1 min	Adult silent reading of English non-fiction, measured across 190 studies.
Fast	300	50 sec	A confident reader on familiar material.
Skim	450	30 sec	Reading for the gist rather than reading every word.

Reading, speaking and page estimates

An article or chapter uses the silent-reading pace; a speech, voice-over or read-aloud script uses the speaking pace. For a known word count use Word count. For a reading assignment use Page count and enter your own average words per page. For a five-minute talk use Target minutes: at 150 WPM the budget is 750 words before pauses. A named book is not looked up automatically, and the tool does not run a timer or measure your reading speed.

Local calculation. Pasted text is processed in this browser with no fixed input-size ceiling. Browser memory and processing time are the practical limits. Drafts up to 50,000 characters and selected settings can be remembered here. Longer text is calculated in full but omitted from storage.

Common questions

What is the average reading speed?: 238 words a minute for adult silent reading of English non-fiction. That figure comes from a 2019 review that pooled 190 separate reading studies, and it is the default here. It is lower than most people expect, and much lower than the numbers speed reading courses quote. Reading for detail or on unfamiliar technical material is closer to 150, a confident reader on familiar material is around 300, and skimming for the gist runs at 450 or more. All four are on the tool, and the same text is timed at every one of them so you can see how much the choice of speed is doing.
How is speaking time different from reading time?: Silent reading and speaking use separate paces. At the default 150 speaking WPM, 1,000 words takes about 6 minutes 40 seconds; at 238 reading WPM it takes about 4 minutes 10 seconds. Edit either pace to match your rehearsal or reading habits. Pauses, slide changes and audience responses are additional time that a word count cannot measure.
How is the word count worked out?: With the Unicode word-breaking rules, through the browser's own segmenter, rather than by splitting on spaces. That matters in two places. A hyphenated word such as state-of-the-art counts as one word, which is what every word counter people have used does, and a naive split would call it four. Chinese and Japanese are written without spaces, so they are segmented into words instead of being counted as one enormous word. Where a browser is too old to have the segmenter, a Unicode-aware fallback does the same job, and Chinese falls back to one word per character, which is close for Chinese and rough for Japanese.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?: About 4 minutes 10 seconds at the 238 words a minute average, 6 minutes 40 seconds at a careful 150, 3 minutes 20 seconds at a fast 300, and around 2 minutes 10 seconds skimming at 450. Read aloud at 150 words a minute it is 6 minutes 40 seconds. Times are shown to the nearest ten seconds, because a figure like 4 minutes 12 seconds claims a precision the speed estimate cannot support.
What does the reading ease score mean?: It is the Flesch reading ease score, worked out from the average sentence length and the average number of syllables per word. 90 and above is very easy, around a fifth grade reading level; 60 to 69 is plain English at an eighth to ninth grade level; below 30 is a college graduate reading level. Short sentences and short words push the score up. The syllable count behind it is an estimate, since English syllables have no exact rule without a dictionary, so treat the score as a direction rather than a measurement. The formula is built for English, so no score is shown for text the syllable estimator cannot read.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?: No. The counting and the arithmetic run in the page itself, so a manuscript, a client script or an unpublished post never leaves your machine, and there is no size limit imposed on what you paste. A draft of up to 50,000 characters is kept in this browser's own storage so it is still there when you come back; anything longer is timed in full but not saved. Clearing the box with the Clear button clears the saved copy too.
Can I convert a word count to minutes without pasting text?: Choose Word count and enter the total. The tool divides it by each selected pace and displays both reading and speaking durations. At 150 WPM, 500 words is about 3 minutes 20 seconds, 1,500 words is 10 minutes and 2,000 words is about 13 minutes 20 seconds. Numerical variations use the same calculator.
How long does it take to read a page, a chapter or a book?: Use Page count with an average words-per-page figure, or enter the actual word count. Ten pages at 250 words per page contains an estimated 2,500 words, which takes about 10 minutes 30 seconds at 238 WPM. A textbook, comic, illustrated book and a different edition can have very different page densities. The tool has no book-title database and does not infer word counts from a title.
How many words fit in a five-minute speech?: Choose Target minutes. At 150 speaking WPM, five minutes gives a 750-word budget, three minutes gives 450 words and ten minutes gives 1,500. The tool rounds a fractional word budget down. Leave time for pauses and practice aloud to test the estimate.
Does this tool measure my reading speed or run a timer?: It estimates duration from a supplied pace; it does not record elapsed time, test comprehension, start a stopwatch or generate a teleprompter. If you already measured your WPM, type that pace into Reading WPM.

Word counts are exact. Reading time is the count divided by the speed you choose, and the speed is the estimate; the 238 words a minute default is the measured adult average for silent reading. The reading-ease score uses a syllable estimate and is approximate.