Paste your text or enter a word count to estimate reading time at slow, average, and fast speeds.
The average adult reads at 250 words per minute. Paste your text or enter a word count to see reading time at slow (150 wpm), average (250 wpm), and fast (400 wpm) speeds.
Reading time = word count ÷ reading speed (words per minute). This calculator shows estimates at three speeds to account for different readers and content types. Technical content, dense academic text, or unfamiliar subjects naturally take longer than light narrative reading.
Platforms like Medium and Substack show estimated read times because readers use them to decide whether to invest time in an article. Research shows that posts in the 6–7 minute range (around 1,600 words) tend to get the most engagement. Knowing your read time helps you match your content length to your audience's expectations.
Fiction and casual blog posts: 250–350 wpm. Business content and news: 200–250 wpm. Technical documentation or academic papers: 100–200 wpm. Poetry or dense philosophical text: even slower. Use the "slow" estimate for complex or unfamiliar material.