Turn words into minutes at any reading speed
| Reading Speed | Time for This Text | Words Covered in 5 Minutes |
|---|
This table recalculates with your input. The speed column is the input, the time column is words ÷ speed, and the last column shows what each pace reads in a fixed five minutes.
| Activity | Speed (WPM) | Source / Note |
|---|---|---|
| Average adult, non-fiction | 238 | Brysbaert 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies |
| Average adult, fiction | 260 | Same meta-analysis; narrative flows faster |
| Technical or dense material | 100 – 150 | Textbooks, legal, scientific papers |
| Fast readers | 300 – 350 | Upper bound with strong comprehension |
| Skimming | 400 – 700 | Comprehension drops sharply (Rayner 2016) |
| Speaking, conversational | 130 – 150 | Presentation and podcast pace |
| Audiobook narration | 150 – 160 | Professional narration standard |
| Auctioneer | ~250 | The ceiling for intelligible speech |
Typical word counts for planning: paperback page ~275 words, double-spaced manuscript page ~250, blog post 1,000–2,500, TED-style talk (18 min) ~2,600 at 145 WPM, average novel 70,000–90,000 words.
Bloggers use reading time to set expectations, speechwriters use speaking time to fit a slot, and students use it to plan study sessions. All three come from the same division: how many words, divided by how fast the words move.
Reading time (minutes) = word count ÷ reading speed (WPM). For display, the decimal minutes split into minutes and seconds, and anything over an hour splits into hours and minutes. Speaking time uses the same formula at 130 WPM, the middle of the presentation range. Page count divides by 275, the standard paperback planning number.
Enter a word count, or switch to paste mode and drop in the whole text to have it counted for you. Pick a speed preset or set a custom WPM, and the hero number updates with every keystroke. The speed table below the result shows the same text at slow, average, fast, and skimming paces so you can bracket the honest range.
A 1,500-word article at the average 238 WPM: 1,500 ÷ 238 = 6.30 minutes, which displays as 6 min 18 s. Read it aloud at a presentation pace of 130 WPM and it becomes 1,500 ÷ 130 = 11.5 minutes, 11 min 32 s. Run the same math on an 80,000-word novel at 238 WPM and you get 336.1 minutes, or 5 hr 36 min of solid reading, roughly 291 paperback pages.
Going the other direction is how editors plan: a 5-minute read at 238 WPM is 238 × 5 = 1,190 words, and a 20-minute read is 4,760. If a blog badge says "5 min read" on a 2,500-word post, it's assuming a skimmer.
About 4 minutes and 12 seconds at the average adult reading speed of 238 words per minute for non-fiction. At a slower 150 WPM it takes 6 minutes 40 seconds, and at a fast 325 WPM it takes 3 minutes 5 seconds. Speech takes much longer: reading 1,000 words aloud at a presentation pace of 130 WPM runs about 7 minutes 42 seconds.
238 words per minute for non-fiction and about 260 for fiction, per Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies, which is the figure most modern estimates are built on. The older 200 to 250 WPM rule of thumb still brackets it. Fast readers with strong comprehension run 300 to 350 WPM, and claims of 1,000-plus WPM come from skimming, where comprehension collapses.
1,190 words at the average 238 WPM, or 1,000 words at the round 200 WPM many blogs use. Working backwards, a 10-minute read is 2,380 words and a 20-minute read is 4,760 words. Medium's old read-time badge used 265 WPM, which makes a 5-minute post about 1,325 words.
Reading time equals word count divided by reading speed in words per minute. A 2,500-word article at 238 WPM is 10 minutes 30 seconds. The only judgment call is the speed: 238 WPM for average non-fiction, 260 for fiction, 150 for dense or technical material, and 130 to 150 for text you'll read aloud.
A typical paperback page holds 250 to 300 words, so 275 is the standard planning number. A double-spaced typed manuscript page runs about 250 words, and a dense textbook page can exceed 600. An 80,000-word novel is roughly 291 paperback pages at 275 words each.
Not with normal comprehension. Reading research, notably Rayner's 2016 review, puts the practical ceiling for real reading near 400 to 600 WPM with meaningful loss, and skimming at 700-plus trades most of the understanding for speed. Apps that flash words at 1,000 WPM feel fast but studies show comprehension falls toward half. The honest fast-reader band is 300 to 350 WPM.