Free Reading Time Calculator
Paste your text to see how long it takes to read, then add a "min read" estimate to your posts and emails
Reading speed
Pick a pace or type your own. The average adult reads about 238 words per minute (non-fiction) and about 260 (fiction).
Reading time by length
| Length | Reading time |
|---|---|
| 250 words | 1 min 3 sec |
| 500 words | 2 min 6 sec |
| 1,000 words | 4 min 12 sec |
| 1,500 words | 6 min 18 sec |
| 2,000 words | 8 min 24 sec |
| 3,000 words | 12 min 36 sec |
| 5,000 words | 21 min 1 sec |
| 10,000 words | 42 min 1 sec |
Your text stays in this browser tab. It is not uploaded, sent to an AI, or saved.
Key takeaways
Paste your text and you get an estimated reading time. The default pace is 238 words per minute, the average for adults reading non-fiction silently, and you can change it.
A published review of 190 studies found about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and about 260 for fiction. Individual readers vary a lot.
The estimate is useful for a "5 min read" label, for planning newsletters and for checking a post is not longer than your readers will want.
It runs in your browser. Your text is not uploaded or saved.
How Long Will It Take to Read?
Paste your text into the box and the reading time appears at the top, along with the word count it is based on. Under the box, choose a pace or type your own, and the time changes straight away.
The calculation is simple: reading time = number of words ÷ words per minute. What matters is which words per minute you use, so here is where the default comes from.
What Reading Speed Does This Use?
The default is 238 words per minute. That figure comes from a 2019 review and meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert in the Journal of Memory and Language, which combined 190 studies with more than 18,000 participants. For adults reading English silently, it found an average of about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and about 260 words per minute for fiction. Non-fiction is slower mostly because its words are longer on average. You can read the paper itself: How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate.
Those are averages. Real readers range widely, and the same person reads at different speeds depending on the topic, the screen and how tired they are. So the calculator also lets you pick a slower pace of 200 or a faster one of 300, or enter your own.
| Reading pace | Words per minute | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | 200 | Dense or technical text, readers new to the topic, reading in a second language |
| Average adult | 238 | General non-fiction, blog posts and articles |
| Fast | 300 | Light or familiar material, and skimming readers |
Reading Time by Length
At the default pace of 238 words per minute, these lengths come out at roughly:
| Length | Reading time |
|---|---|
| 250 words | About 1 minute |
| 500 words | About 2 minutes |
| 1,000 words | About 4 minutes |
| 1,500 words | About 6 minutes |
| 2,000 words | About 8 minutes |
| 3,000 words | About 13 minutes |
The tool shows these for whichever pace you choose, and gives your own text to the second.
How to Use the Estimate
- Label your posts. A "5 min read" tag at the top of an article tells readers what they are committing to. Round to the nearest minute.
- Plan a newsletter. Decide how long you want people to spend and cut to fit.
- Check an essay or report. If a reader has to finish it in a meeting, you can see whether it fits.
- Time a reading for an audience. For a talk, use the speaking time calculator instead, because speaking is slower than silent reading.
If you want to tighten something that runs long, the free summarizer can produce a shorter version, and our guide to writing a blog post outline helps you plan the length before you write. The buttons under the text box carry your text to those tools.
Your Text Stays in Your Browser
The calculation happens on your device. Nothing you type is uploaded, saved or sent to an AI. If you click one of the AI buttons, your text is carried over to that tool.
What This Estimate Cannot Tell You
Reading time is a guess about an average reader. It cannot account for images, tables, code, headings that people skim, or a reader who is studying the text rather than reading it. It also is not a measure of how engaging a piece is. A short piece can feel long and a long one can feel quick. Use the number as a rough guide and, for anything important, ask a real reader to time themselves.
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