Reading Time Calculator
Estimate how long your content takes to read. Adjust the reading speed to match your audience — technical readers are slower than casual ones.
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded
—
Reading time
—
Precise
0
Words
200 wpm
Speed used
How to use this tool
- Paste your article text.
- Adjust words per minute if your audience reads faster or slower than average.
- Use the result in your article template, if you show read time to readers.
What is Reading Time Calculator?
Showing an estimated reading time sets expectations before someone commits to an article, and there is reasonable evidence it improves the share of visitors who start reading at all.
The number itself is a rough estimate. Adult silent reading averages somewhere around 200–250 words per minute for general prose, but drops sharply for technical material, code samples or anything the reader needs to think about.
Best practices
- Use 200 wpm for general audiences, 130–150 for technical or academic content.
- Round to whole minutes — false precision looks odd.
- Do not count code blocks and tables as ordinary prose; they take far longer.
- Show the estimate near the title, where it helps someone decide.
Frequently asked questions
What reading speed should I use?
Around 200 words per minute is a reasonable default for general web content. Lower it to 130–150 for technical writing, which people read more slowly and often re-read.
Does reading time affect SEO?
Not directly. It can affect engagement, and engagement affects whether people stay and return — but there is no ranking factor called reading time.
Related tools
Want this done properly on your site?
These tools handle the checks. If you would rather someone did the work — the audit, the fixes and the content — that is what I do.
Results are provided for informational purposes and may vary depending on the website, browser, network and available data.