How this reading time calculator works
- Choose where the length comes from. Enter a word count, paste text to count its words, pick one of twelve novels or enter a number of pages.
- Set your speed. The default is the average adult silent reading speed for non-fiction. Switch to fiction or reading aloud, or type your own.
- Read the time. The result is words divided by words per minute, shown in hours and minutes.
That is the whole calculation. Nothing is hidden: reading time is the word count divided by your speed. The only judgment is the speed, so it is worth knowing where the defaults come from.
Where the reading speeds come from
The defaults are from Brysbaert (2019), “How many words do we read per minute?” in the Journal of Memory and Language. It reviews 190 studies with 18,573 participants and estimates that the average adult silent reading rate in English is 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction. The difference is explained by word length, because non-fiction uses longer words. For silent reading of non-fiction, most adults fall between 175 and 300 words per minute, and for fiction between 200 and 320. The average rate for reading aloud, from 77 studies, is 183.
The same paper notes that these figures are lower than the numbers often quoted, that rates are lower for children, older adults and people reading in a second language, and that claims of very fast reading rarely hold up without a loss of understanding. If you read faster or slower than the average, set your own speed.
How long does it take to read a book?
Take a book’s word count, divide by your speed and you have the time. A short novel such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (26,465 words) takes about 1 hr 42 min at the average fiction speed. A classic like Pride and Prejudice (127,302 words) takes about 8 hr 10 min, and Moby-Dick (212,760 words) about 13 hr 38 min. These word counts come from the Project Gutenberg texts we measured for how many words are in a novel.
If you only know a book’s page count, the calculator can estimate words from pages using a 5.5 × 8.5 inch paperback layout from our words-to-pages measurements. Printed books vary in type size and margins, so that figure is approximate.
Reading aloud, speeches and writing for a length
If you are timing a speech or a reading, use the reading aloud speed of 183 words per minute and add time for pauses. If you are writing to a length, such as a five-minute read, multiply the minutes by the speed to get a target word count. A five-minute read at 238 words per minute is about 1,190 words.
Why the estimate is a guide, not a promise
Reading speed is not one number. It changes with how hard the text is, how familiar the subject is, how tired you are and why you are reading. A novel you are racing through and a contract you are checking line by line are different tasks, even at the same word count. Use the estimate to plan, then adjust the speed to match what you know about yourself: if you find that you finish a typical chapter faster or slower, enter your own words per minute and the times will follow.
More tools for writers
To see how hard a text is to read, try the readability checker. To count syllables in a poem or lyric, use the syllable counter. And if you need a place to start writing, there are writing prompts for every genre.
Ready to start drafting? Read how to write a book, with an outline template and a finish date calculator.