Reading Time Calculator
Paste your text or simply type the word count — you do not have to paste the whole document, which every other calculator makes you do. You get reading time and speaking time together, based on a measured 238 words per minute rather than a rounded guess.
Runs in your browser. Nothing uploaded.
How to use it
- Paste your text, or type a number. If you already know you have 1,200 words, type
1200— you do not have to paste the document. - Read both answers. Time to read silently, and time to say aloud, side by side.
- Change the speed if your audience is not average. Four presets, or type an exact words-per-minute figure.
Everything updates as you type.
How this reading time calculator works
The formula is as simple as it looks:
minutes = words ÷ words per minute
There is no complexity to hide. Which means the only thing that separates one calculator from another is the words-per-minute figure it picks — and that is where they quietly disagree with each other.
| Assumed speed | 2,000-word article | Difference from 238 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 wpm | 10.0 min | +2.6 min |
| 225 wpm | 8.9 min | +1.5 min |
| 238 wpm | 8.4 min | — |
| 250 wpm | 8.0 min | −0.4 min |
| 265 wpm | 7.5 min | −0.9 min |
| 300 wpm | 6.7 min | −1.7 min |
Same article, answers between 6.7 and 10 minutes. That is the whole reason two websites give you different numbers for the same text.
How fast people actually read
The default here is 238 words per minute. That figure comes from Brysbaert (2019), a meta-analysis of 190 studies covering 18,573 participants — the largest review of adult reading speed that exists. It found 238 wpm for English non-fiction read silently, and 260 wpm for fiction.
The commonly quoted 300 wpm is not supported by that data. Neither is the claim that the average adult reads at 200 — that is closer to reading aloud.
| Reader or material | Words per minute |
|---|---|
| Reading aloud | 150–160 |
| Adult, non-fiction, silent | 238 |
| Adult, fiction, silent | 260 |
| Technical or academic text | 150–200 |
| Material being learned, not skimmed | Under 100 |
| Skimming for a specific fact | 400–700 |
| Trained speed reader, with comprehension loss | 400–600 |
| Age 8–10 | 120–150 |
| Age 12–14 | 180–200 |
| Second-language reader | 100–200 |
Claims of 1,000 words per minute and above generally involve skipping most of the text. The research consistently finds that comprehension falls off sharply past about 400 wpm for material you have not seen before.
If you are estimating for an audience rather than yourself, estimate low. Nobody complains that an article took less time than promised.
Worked example: 1,000 words
A 1,000-word article, using the defaults:
- Reading: 1,000 ÷ 238 = 4.2 minutes → shown as 4 min.
- Blog label: rounded up, 5 min read.
- Speaking: 1,000 ÷ 140 = 7.1 minutes → shown as 7 min.
Now change the audience. If it is dense technical documentation and you set the speed to 180 wpm, reading time becomes 5.6 minutes. If it is light fiction at 260, it drops to 3.8. Same words, different readers.
Reading time by length
| Words | To read (238 wpm) | To say aloud (140 wpm) |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 25 sec | 43 sec |
| 250 | 1 min | 2 min |
| 500 | 2 min | 4 min |
| 750 | 3 min | 5 min |
| 1,000 | 4 min | 7 min |
| 1,500 | 6 min | 11 min |
| 2,000 | 8 min | 14 min |
| 3,000 | 13 min | 21 min |
| 5,000 | 21 min | 36 min |
| 10,000 | 42 min | 1 hr 11 min |
| 50,000 | 3 hr 30 min | 5 hr 57 min |
| 80,000 (a novel) | 5 hr 36 min | 9 hr 31 min |
Speaking time is a different question
Reading speed and speaking speed are not the same number, and using one for the other is how talks overrun.
The default here is 140 words per minute, which is the pace that sounds measured and deliberate from a stage. Conversation runs faster at 150 to 160. Audiobook narration sits near 150. Anything above 160 in a presentation reads as rushed, and nerves push most people there without noticing.
| Slot length | Script length at 140 wpm |
|---|---|
| 3 minutes | ~420 words |
| 5 minutes | ~700 words |
| 10 minutes | ~1,400 words |
| 15 minutes | ~2,100 words |
| 20 minutes | ~2,800 words |
| 45 minutes | ~6,300 words |
Those figures assume you are talking continuously. Slides, demos, questions and pauses all eat into them, so a 20-minute slot realistically wants a 2,200–2,500 word script rather than 2,800.
Where the “5 min read” label comes from
Blog reading-time labels are the same formula with two conventions on top: round up, and never show zero. A 40-word post says “1 min read”, not “0 min read”.
Medium popularised the format and uses 265 words per minute, adding 12 seconds for the first image, 11 for the second and so on down to 3 seconds. Most WordPress plugins default to somewhere between 200 and 250 and let you change it.
The tool shows the exact time and the rounded-up blog label together, so you can use whichever your platform expects.
Whether the label helps is genuinely arguable. It sets expectations, which reduces bounces on long pieces. It can also talk readers out of a 15-minute article they would have enjoyed. If you publish one, be accurate about it rather than optimistic.
Common documents, timed
Useful when you are working backwards from a slot rather than forwards from a draft.
| Piece | Typical words | To read | To say aloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elevator pitch | 150 | 38 sec | 1 min |
| Wedding speech | 700–1,000 | 3–4 min | 5–7 min |
| Best man’s speech | 800 | 3 min | 6 min |
| Podcast intro | 200 | 50 sec | 1 min |
| YouTube video script (10 min) | 1,400 | 6 min | 10 min |
| Conference talk (20 min) | 2,600 | 11 min | 19 min |
| University lecture (50 min) | 6,500 | 27 min | 46 min |
| Audiobook chapter | 4,000 | 17 min | 29 min |
| Standard blog post | 1,200 | 5 min | 9 min |
| Long-form guide | 3,000 | 13 min | 21 min |
Video scripts are the one place the two columns diverge sharply in practice. A YouTube script read at conversational pace runs closer to 150 wpm than 140, and cutaways, b-roll and pauses add time that no word count predicts. Script for about 80% of your target length and you will usually land close.
Why you can type a number instead of pasting
Every other reading-time calculator makes you paste the whole document. That is friction for no reason: if you wrote the thing in Word, you already know it is 1,247 words.
Type the number and the tool uses it. Type text and it counts the words first. It works out which you meant from what you typed — a bare number, with or without thousands separators, is a count; anything else is text.
If you need the word count in the first place, the word counter gives it along with characters, sentences, paragraphs and pages. Both tools use the same definition of a word, so their numbers always agree. Text pasted from a web page can carry hidden characters that skew a count, which the invisible character detector will find, and the case converter handles capitalisation without touching the word count.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes silently at an average adult speed of 238 words per minute. Read aloud at a presentation pace of 140 words per minute it takes about 7 minutes. Technical or academic text runs slower, often 150 to 200 words per minute, because you stop and re-read.
What is the average reading speed?
For adults reading English non-fiction silently, 238 words per minute. Fiction is faster at around 260. Those figures come from Brysbaert (2019), a meta-analysis of 190 studies covering 18,573 participants — the largest review of the question. The often-quoted 300 wpm is not supported by the data.
How long does it take to speak 1,000 words?
About 7 minutes at 140 words per minute, which is the pace that sounds measured from a stage. Conversation runs faster at 150 to 160, and audiobook narration sits near 150. If you are timing a conference talk, 140 is the safer number to plan against — nerves speed people up, and running long is worse than running short.
Why do reading time estimates differ between websites?
Because they use different words-per-minute figures and almost none of them say which. Common defaults are 200, 225, 250 and 265, and that spread alone changes a 2,000 word article from 8 minutes to 10. Medium popularised 265 wpm. We use 238 and show it in the tool so you can change it.
Does reading speed change for technical text?
Yes, substantially. Dense technical, legal or academic prose is typically read at 150 to 200 words per minute, and material you have to learn rather than skim can drop below 100. Fiction and familiar material go the other way. If your audience is reading to act on something, estimate low.
How is the "5 min read" label on blogs calculated?
Word count divided by an assumed reading speed, rounded up, with a minimum of one minute. Medium uses 265 words per minute and adds 12 seconds per image. The tool above shows the rounded-up blog label alongside the exact time, so you can use whichever your publishing platform expects.
Last updated: August 14, 2026