How to use the reading time calculator
- 1Choose Paste text and paste your text, or choose Enter a word count and type the number of words.
- 2Read Reading time, Speaking time and Reading aloud.
- 3Move the Reading speed and Speaking pace sliders to match your audience.
- 4To plan a talk, type the length into Minutes under Words for a set time.
Example
1,000 words
Reading time (238 wpm): 4 min 12 sec Speaking time (140 wpm): 7 min 9 sec Reading aloud (183 wpm): 5 min 28 sec
Default speeds. Five minutes of speaking at 140 wpm is about 700 words.
Average reading and speaking speeds
A 2019 review of 190 studies by Marc Brysbaert put the average silent reading speed of adults reading English at 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, and reading aloud at 183 words per minute. These are the defaults here.
| Activity | Typical speed |
|---|---|
| Silent reading, non-fiction | 238 wpm |
| Silent reading, fiction | 260 wpm |
| Reading aloud | 183 wpm |
| Presentation or speech | 130–150 wpm |
Old claims of 300 words per minute or more for the average reader come from studies that measured skimming, not reading with understanding.
Adjusting words per minute
Use a lower reading speed for technical, legal or academic text, for readers working in a second language, or for children; use a higher one for light fiction. The time is simply words ÷ speed: 1,000 words at 238 words per minute is 4.2 minutes, or 4 minutes 12 seconds.
In Paste text mode, words are counted the same way as in the word counter: hyphenated words and contractions count once, and numbers count as words.
Reading time for articles and emails
Many blogs show an estimated reading time at the top of each article. Divide the word count by roughly 200–240 and round up: a 1,500-word article is about 7 minutes. Readers rarely read every word of a web page, so treat the figure as the time to read it properly, not the time people will spend.
For emails, aim for something that can be read in under a minute (about 200 words) when you need a quick answer. To shorten a long text, try the text summarizer; to check readability first, the essay checker.
Timing speeches and presentations
Spoken delivery is slower than reading aloud because of pauses, emphasis and audience reactions. The default speaking pace of 140 words per minute is comfortable for most talks; nervous speakers often run faster, so rehearse with a timer.
Type a length into Minutes to see how many words to write: a 5-minute speech is about 700 words, a 10-minute talk about 1,400, and a 2-minute wedding toast about 280. Leave room for slides, applause and questions. For page counts, see how many pages is 1,000 words.
Is anything I enter stored?
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your text is not uploaded to our servers.