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Reading Time and WPM Calculator

Reading time from a word count, adjusted for how dense the material is. Silent reading runs around 238 words a minute; reading aloud is closer to 130, which is why the two answers differ so much.

Also called: words to minutes, speech length calculator.

Content type
Reading time
6 min 18 s

6 min 18 s at 238 words a minute. Read aloud it would take 11 min 32 s, which is why a talk needs far fewer words than a page.

Minutes
6.3
Speed used
238
If read aloud
11 min 32 s
Pages at 500 words
3
Slides at 100 words
15
How this is calculated

An estimate, not an offer or a guarantee. Projected returns assume the rate you entered holds for the whole term, which no market does.

Method and background

How this is calculated

Divide words by a reading speed. The speed is the whole question: research on adult silent reading of non-fiction clusters around 238 words a minute, dense technical material runs slower because the reader stops to think, and speaking aloud at a comfortable pace is roughly 130. Choosing the content type applies the appropriate adjustment rather than pretending one number fits.

time = words / words per minute
w
Word count (words)
v
Reading speed (words per minute)

Worked examples

Each of these is asserted on every build. If a change to the engine ever moved one of these answers, the build would fail before the page could print it.

a fifteen hundred word article

Words
1,500
Reading speed, words a minute
238
Content type
Article or blog post

Reading time6 min 18 s

1500 / 238, worked by hand

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technical material reads thirty percent slower

Words
1,500
Reading speed, words a minute
238
Content type
Technical or dense material

Reading time9 min

boundary: the adjustment this page makes explicit

Open this example

no words take no time

Words
0
Reading speed, words a minute
238
Content type
Article or blog post

Reading timeunder a minute

degenerate case

Open this example

Method and limits

What it assumes

  • An adult reader of ordinary prose in their first language.

What it deliberately does not model

  • Code blocks, tables and equations take far longer per word than prose and are not detected.
  • The estimate says nothing about comprehension, which falls sharply above about 400 words a minute.

Formula version 1.0.0 · definition 1.0.0 · United States · Report a problem with this calculator

Frequently asked questions

Why is speaking time so much longer?
Because speech has a physical floor. A comfortable delivery is around 130 words a minute, roughly half silent reading, which is why a twenty minute talk is about 2,600 words rather than 4,800.