Reading Time Calculator: Read and Speaking Time

The formula

Reading time = word count ÷ words per minute. That is all any reading time estimate does, including the "5 min read" labels on news sites. The only real decision is which speed to divide by.

The calculator counts words as runs of letters, digits, apostrophes, and hyphens, so "don't" and "well-known" each count once. It then shows two results: silent reading time at your reading speed and speaking time at your speaking speed. The blog label rounds silent reading time to the nearest whole minute, with a floor of 1 minute.

Why the default is 238 words per minute

The old rule of thumb was 200 to 250 wpm, and some speed-reading sites claim averages of 300 or more. The best evidence comes from psychologist Marc Brysbaert, who pooled 190 studies with 18,573 participants in a 2019 paper in the Journal of Memory and Language. Adults reading English nonfiction silently averaged 238 wpm. Fiction was faster at 260 wpm. Reading aloud averaged 183 wpm.

Use 238 for articles, reports, and documentation. Raise it to 260 for fiction or light, familiar content. Drop it to 150 to 200 for dense technical, legal, or academic text, where readers slow down and reread.

Worked examples

A 1,500-word blog post at 238 wpm: 1,500 ÷ 238 = 6.30 minutes, which is 6 minutes 18 seconds and rounds to a 6 min read. At Medium's 265 wpm it is 5.66 minutes, a 6 min read as well.

A 10-minute conference talk: at 140 wpm you need about 1,400 words of script. Many first-time speakers write 2,000 words for 10 minutes, then rush and run over. Paste your draft, set speaking speed to your real pace, and cut until the speaking time fits with a minute to spare.

A 60-second video ad: at 160 wpm, that is 160 words at most, and fewer if the visuals need breathing room. Most tight 30-second spots use 65 to 75 words.

Find your own speaking speed

Read a 300-word passage aloud at your presentation pace and time it. If it takes 2 minutes 10 seconds, your speed is 300 ÷ 2.17 = 138 wpm. Put that number in the speaking speed field and every estimate afterwards is tailored to you.

Speeches run slower than reading because of pauses, emphasis, and audience reaction. Plan for 120 to 150 wpm for a live talk, 150 to 160 for podcasts and narration, and 160 to 180 only for energetic promo reads.

Common mistakes

Counting code blocks, tables, and image captions as prose. Readers skim them, so they inflate the estimate. Remove them before pasting if you want an honest number.

Ignoring images and charts. Some platforms add seconds per image to account for viewing time. If your article is visual-heavy, round up rather than down.

Using reading speed for audio. A script timed at 238 wpm will run about 60 percent longer when spoken at 150 wpm. That mistake is how a planned 5-minute YouTube intro becomes 8 minutes.

Forgetting that audiences differ. Kids, non-native English speakers, and people reading on a small phone screen read slower than the 238 wpm average. If you write for a general consumer audience, 200 wpm is a safer planning figure. For an expert audience skimming familiar material, 300 wpm is realistic. The speed fields exist precisely so you can match the estimate to the people who will actually read it.

Why reading time labels matter

A visible reading time helps people decide to start. Short estimates invite clicks from casual scrollers, while longer ones set the right expectation for in-depth guides and reduce the number of people who bail after the first screen.

For email newsletters, most readers give you a few minutes at most. Keeping an issue under a 3 min read, roughly 700 words at 238 wpm, is a sensible target if you want people to reach the bottom.