Reading time calculator
How long will it take to read — or to say?
The average adult reads English non-fiction silently at about 238 words per minute and presents aloud at about 130. Paste your text below for both times, or adjust the pace sliders to match your reader or your own delivery.
Reference: time by word count
Generated at the default paces — 238 wpm reading, 130 wpm speaking. A typical podcast segment, keynote or video script is planned from the speaking column.
| Words | Reading time | Speaking time | Roughly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 25 sec | 46 sec | A short post or email |
| 250 | 1 min 3 sec | 1 min 55 sec | A short post or email |
| 500 | 2 min 6 sec | 3 min 51 sec | A short post or email |
| 750 | 3 min 9 sec | 5 min 46 sec | A standard blog post |
| 1,000 | 4 min 12 sec | 7 min 42 sec | A standard blog post |
| 1,500 | 6 min 18 sec | 11 min 32 sec | A long article or short talk |
| 2,000 | 8 min 24 sec | 15 min 23 sec | A long article or short talk |
| 3,000 | 12 min 36 sec | 23 min 5 sec | A keynote or chapter section |
| 5,000 | 21 min 1 sec | 38 min 28 sec | A keynote or chapter section |
| 10,000 | 42 min 1 sec | 1 hr 16 min | A short book chapter |
Which pace should you plan with?
238 wpm is the research-consensus average for silent reading of non-fiction; fiction tends to run a little faster, dense technical material 30–50% slower. 130 wpm suits presentations, where pauses, emphasis and slide changes stretch the delivery. Audiobook narration is usually recorded at 150–160 wpm, conversational speech runs 120–150, and a fast auctioneer is not a planning model. If you are timing your own talk, read a 200-word sample aloud with a stopwatch and set the speaking slider to what you measured.
Frequently asked questions
- How long is a 10-minute speech in words?
- About 1,300 words at a presentation pace of 130 wpm. At an audiobook pace of 155, roughly 1,550 words.
- How long does it take to read a novel?
- An 80,000-word novel at 238 wpm is about 5 hours 36 minutes of reading. The calculator above handles the paste if you have the manuscript.
- Why do reading-time labels on blogs differ?
- Sites choose their own pace — 200, 225 and 265 wpm are all in use — and some round up per image or code block. We state our pace on the label so the estimate is checkable.
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