How long a book, article or speech takes at an average reading speed, or at your own
Enter a book's pages, a word count, or paste the text itself, and pick a reading speed. The calculator gives the reading time, how many sessions it takes at the minutes a day you have, and the same time at slower and faster speeds. The averages come from the largest review of reading-rate studies; if you have timed yourself, use your own number, or switch to Measure my speed and time a page now.
Reading time is the number of words divided by your reading speed in words per minute. A 300-page novel with about 275 words on a page holds 82,500 words; at 260 words per minute, the average for fiction, that is 317 minutes, or 5 hours 17 minutes. Reading 30 minutes a day, you finish it in 11 days.
A 1,500-word article takes 6 minutes 18 seconds at 238 words per minute, the average for non-fiction, and 8 minutes 12 seconds read aloud at 183. That is why a written speech always runs longer than the time it takes to read silently.
A 2019 meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert pooled 190 studies with nearly 18,600 readers. It put the average adult reading English silently at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, and reading aloud at about 183. Many figures quoted online, often 300 words per minute or more, are higher than what typical readers actually do.
Your own rate moves with the text. Dense technical writing, unfamiliar vocabulary and a second language all slow it down; light fiction you are enjoying speeds it up. For a textbook you need to remember, plan on well under the average.
Page counts are a poor guide on their own. A mass-market paperback, a large-print edition and a hardback of the same novel can differ by hundreds of pages. If you can, use the word count: many publishers and book databases list it. Otherwise count the words on three full pages, average them, and enter that as words per page.
Typical trade paperbacks hold roughly 250 to 300 words a page, which is why the calculator starts at 275. Books with dialogue, short lines or lots of white space come in lower; academic texts with small type come in higher.
Time yourself reading something you have not read before, at your normal pace, for two to five minutes, then count the words you covered and enter them under Measure my speed. Reading faster than you can follow is skimming, which gives an impressive number and a poor memory of the text.
The Reading Speed Test on this site does the timing for you and asks three questions afterwards, then reports a speed adjusted for how much you understood, which is the number worth tracking.
About 5 hours 17 minutes at 260 words per minute, the average adult speed for fiction, if the book has about 275 words a page (82,500 words). At 30 minutes a day that is 11 days.
About 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction when reading silently, and about 183 when reading aloud, according to a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies.
About 4 minutes 12 seconds at 238 words per minute, the average for non-fiction, and about 5 minutes 28 seconds read aloud.
Read for a timed stretch, count the words you read, and divide by the minutes. 500 words in 2 minutes is 250 words per minute. The Measure my speed tab does the division for you.
Roughly 250 to 300 in a typical paperback, but it varies with the font, margins and how much dialogue there is. Counting three full pages and averaging them gives a good estimate.