Reading time calculator
Paste any text, or enter a word count, to see how long it takes to read.
How fast do people read?
A 2019 review of 190 studies by psychologist Marc Brysbaert found that adults read English silently at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and about 260 for fiction. Reading aloud is much slower, around 183 words per minute. Many blogs show "minutes to read" using 200 to 250 wpm.
| Words | At 238 wpm |
|---|---|
| 500 | about 2 min |
| 1,000 | about 4 min |
| 2,500 | about 10.5 min |
| 5,000 | about 21 min |
| 100,000 (a novel) | about 7 hours |
Giving a talk instead? Use the speech time calculator.
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Questions people ask
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes at an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute.
What is the average reading speed?
About 238 words per minute for adults reading non-fiction silently, according to a 2019 review of 190 studies.
How long is a 300-page book to read?
At about 300 words per page that's roughly 90,000 words, or about 6 hours at 250 words per minute.