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How long this takes to read

This counts the words in pasted text and converts them to reading time at a words per minute figure you can edit, because the number every other calculator hides is the only assumption that matters. It also gives skim and careful reading estimates, and slows the rate for technical writing.

Last reviewed 27 August 2026

wpm

Silent adult reading of ordinary prose is usually worked at somewhere between 200 and 260. It is a convention, not a measurement of you.

sec

Our working estimate. Change it if your readers study code blocks rather than skipping them.

Result

Words

78

4 sentences

Reading time

22 sec

Your 240 words per minute, adjusted to 216 for this kind of writing

The same text, three ways

The same text, three ways
How they read itWords per minuteTime
Skimming for the point6008 sec
Reading normally21622 sec
Reading carefully13036 sec

Label you can paste

1 min read

The gap between the skim row and the careful row is the range you are actually publishing into. Someone deciding whether to read this will spend the skim number on it first, which is why the opening paragraph carries more weight than the length.

How this works

What the numbers mean.

  • 01Reading time is word count divided by words per minute, plus a fixed pause for each code block, table, or diagram. Every one of those numbers is an input on this page rather than a constant buried in the code.
  • 02The content type applies a multiplier to your base rate, because the same reader moves slower through unfamiliar terminology and slower again through reference material they are scanning rather than reading.
  • 03Skimming is modelled at two and a half times the base rate and careful reading at 60 percent of the adjusted rate. Those are our working multipliers, and they exist so the output is a range rather than a false precision.
  • 04Code blocks are counted separately from words because they do not scale with reading speed. A reader either studies the block or skips it, and neither behaviour is a words-per-minute question.

Assumptions and limits

  • Reading speed varies enormously by person, subject familiarity, screen, and mood. Any single figure is a convention, which is why this one is editable rather than hidden.
  • The content type multipliers, the skim and careful factors, and the pause per code block are our operating estimates. None of them is a measured figure and none should be quoted as one.
  • This counts words, not comprehension. Time spent is not the same as anything understood.
  • Word counting splits on whitespace, so hyphenated compounds count as one word and numbers with spaces count as two.

Questions about this tool

What words per minute should I use?
For silent adult reading of ordinary prose, somewhere between 200 and 260 is the usual working band and 240 is a common middle. Treat it as a convention rather than a measurement. If you know your audience reads technical material all day, the honest move is to lower the number rather than pretend the piece is shorter.
Why do reading time labels differ between sites?
Because each publisher picks its own constant and none of them show it. The same two thousand word article can carry a seven minute label on one site and a nine minute label on another with no difference in the text. That is the reason the assumption is an editable field here rather than a fixed number.
Is a reading time label worth adding?
It helps a reader decide, which is its only real job. The structural argument is that a visible time estimate lets someone commit or defer instead of bouncing on uncertainty. It stops helping the moment it is wrong, so an inflated label on a padded article costs more than it gains.
Why is technical content slower?
Because readers backtrack. Unfamiliar terminology forces re-reading, code and tables interrupt the line of text entirely, and reference material is scanned in a different pattern from prose. A rate calibrated on newspaper prose overstates how fast anyone gets through documentation.

Related

This tool is free and there is nothing to sign up for. If you would rather have the work done than calculate it, that is what Zway does.

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