Reading Time Calculator
Estimate how long it takes to read your text
About Reading Time Calculator
Estimates how long a text takes to read silently and to say aloud. Paste the text, adjust the speeds if you know your own, and get both figures.
The two speeds and why they differ
The defaults are 200 words per minute for reading and 150 for speaking. Silent reading is faster because the eye skips and predicts; speaking is bounded by articulation and breathing, which no amount of practice removes. Speaking speed also carries pauses, and a talk without pauses is worse than one that runs slightly long.
Are the default speeds right for me?
They are population averages. Adult silent reading ranges roughly 150–350 wpm depending on the material's difficulty; technical text with unfamiliar terms sits at the low end, familiar prose at the high end. Time yourself on a page of your own writing once and use that number instead — the estimate is only as good as the speed you feed it.
Why do blog reading-time labels feel wrong?
Because they count words but not what surrounds them. Code blocks, tables, formulas and images all cost time that a word count cannot see, and a reader who stops to think spends far longer than the label promises. Treat any published reading time as a floor rather than an estimate.