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Reading Time Calculator

Find the reading time of any text.

How it is calculated

The tool splits the text on whitespace, counts the pieces as words, and computes minutes = words / wpm, where wpm is your reading speed in words per minute. If the speed is blank, zero or negative it falls back to 200 wpm. The time is shown as a decimal number of minutes with two digits (0.50 means 30 seconds), not as minutes and seconds. Anything separated by spaces counts as a word, so a hyphenated term is one word and a stray symbol surrounded by spaces counts as one too. Empty text gives no result. Real reading speed varies with topic difficulty and the reader.

Worked example

The sample sentence contains 25 words. At 200 words per minute: 25 / 200 = 0.125, shown rounded as 0.13 min. The word count shown is 25. To convert to seconds, multiply the decimal minutes by 60, which gives roughly 7.5 seconds.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Reading 0.50 min as 50 seconds; it is half a minute, i.e. 30 seconds.
  • Using a speaking pace when the aim is silent reading time, or the reverse; speeches are usually slower than silent reading.
  • Pasting text with extra items such as menus, captions or reference lists that inflate the word count.
  • Leaving the default speed for dense technical material that most people read more slowly.
  • Expecting images, tables or code blocks to add time; only words are counted.

About this calculator

This calculator estimates how long a piece of text will take to read by dividing its word count by an average reading speed, typically around 200-250 words per minute for adult silent reading of general text. Entering the word count (or pasting text to be counted automatically) returns a plain-language estimate like "6 min read."

Bloggers and content editors use it to add the "X min read" tag readers expect on articles, teachers use it to gauge how long an assigned reading will realistically take, and public speakers use a similar logic to time a script before rehearsing it aloud.

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