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Averages for adults reading English non-fiction. Skimming runs far faster; dense technical material, slides and second-language reading run slower.
What The Reading Time Calculator Works Out
- Silent reading: words divided by 238 per minute, the figure from a 2019 meta-analysis of nearly 200 studies of adults reading English non-fiction. It is noticeably slower than the 300 wpm that circulated for years, so 1,000 words is a touch over four minutes. The "X min read" labels on articles typically divide by 200 to 250.
- Reading aloud / speech: words divided by 183 per minute, the working figure for speeches, voiceover and wedding readings. A 10-minute talk holds roughly 1,800 words and a best man pushing 2,500 words is committing to a quarter of an hour.
- Careful / technical reading: words divided by 150 per minute for dense material, legal text, revision and second-language reading. Claimed speed-reading multiples come at the cost of comprehension.
- Reading speeds (advanced): override all three rates. Fiction readers often manage 260 wpm or more, children and new readers 100 to 150, and a presenter who wants breathing room scripts at 150 to 160 spoken words a minute.
- Pages instead of words (advanced): enter a page count and the page type (paperback about 300 words, double-spaced A4 about 275, single-spaced A4 about 500) and the calculator converts it to a word count first.
- Images, charts or slides (advanced): adds viewing time for each image using the rule of 12 seconds for the first and one second less for each subsequent one, down to 3 seconds. A slide deck with 20 slides adds about two and a half minutes.
- Presentation length (advanced): the spoken time plus a percentage for pauses, slide changes and audience response. Presenters run slower than readers; 10% to 20% is a realistic allowance for a live talk.
- Words for your time slot (advanced): the reverse sum: how many spoken words fit a slot of so many minutes after the pause allowance, how far your current draft is over or under, and the silent-reading equivalent for a handout.
- Days to finish (advanced): for books: the silent reading time divided by your daily minutes, with the words and pages you get through per sitting. A 90,000-word novel at 30 minutes a day takes about 13 days.
- Common lengths table (advanced): silent, spoken and careful times at your speeds for an email, a blog post, a 10-minute talk, a long article, a dissertation and a novel. Email over about 200 words visibly loses readers.