Reading time calculator
Paste the text or type a word count. Both are how the question arrives.
The page estimate names the font, size, spacing and margins it assumes, because those are what decide it.
200 is an ordinary adult pace for something you are not studying. Slow to 100 for a dense textbook.
130 is a comfortable presenting pace. Under 120 if you are being interpreted or recorded.
Paste some text, or type a word count, and the times appear here.
Words are runs of characters with spaces around them, which is right for English, Urdu, Arabic and the European languages. Chinese and Japanese do not put spaces between words, so a count of those comes out far too low and the times with it.
Questions
- Is anything I type sent anywhere?
- No. Every tool here runs in the page itself. There is no server that receives your grades, your essay or your sources, and you can check it in your browser's network tab: using a tool produces no request carrying what you typed.
- What reading speed should I use?
- 200 words a minute is an ordinary adult pace for something you are not studying. Drop to around 100 for a dense textbook and raise it towards 300 for something familiar. The slider is there because there is no single right number.
- Why is speaking so much slower than reading?
- Because your mouth is slower than your eyes. A comfortable presenting pace is about 130 words a minute, and under 120 if you are being interpreted or recorded. A five minute talk is therefore around 650 words, not the 1000 a reading pace would suggest.
- How reliable is the page count?
- It is an estimate and the page says so. Roughly 250 words fill a double spaced page and 500 a single spaced one, in a 12 point serif with one inch margins. Change the font, the size, the spacing or the margins and the count changes with it, which is why those assumptions are printed rather than hidden.
- Does it count words in any language?
- It counts runs of characters with spaces around them, which is right for English, Urdu, Arabic and the European languages. Chinese and Japanese do not put spaces between words, so a count of those comes out far too low and the times with it.