Calculate how long it takes to read any text

Estimate the duration of text-only reading from a word count and a selected speed.

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ToolReading Time
Input
Output
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Preview

How it works

Non-empty whitespace-delimited tokens are counted, divided by the selected words-per-minute rate, and rounded to seconds for the display. The default is 238 words per minute, the English non-fiction mean in Brysbaert’s 2019 review; choose another rate for a different audience or task.

  • Images, tables, and code are excluded instead of receiving a fixed invented allowance.

Worked example

Calculate how long it takes to read any text
Estimate a passage at the selected words-per-minute rate
Input
											This short article has enough words to demonstrate a text-only reading-time estimate using a selected reading speed.
Output
												Minutes: 0.07
Seconds: 4
Formatted: 4 sec read
Word count: 17
Words per minute: 238

When to use this

Documentation badges, blog editing, and text-only lesson plans use an estimate alongside the actual word count.

Edge cases

  • A 300-word code sample has the same token count as prose but usually takes longer to inspect.
  • CJK text without spaces is counted as one token by this whitespace method.
  • An image-only page has zero text words and no made-up image-time addition.

References