About this tool
Reading Time Calculator
Free Reading Time Calculator to estimate how long an article or passage takes to read using your text and a chosen words-per-minute reading speed.
About the Reading Time Calculator
Reading Time Calculator estimates how long a passage may take to read at a selected words-per-minute speed. It is useful for articles, reports, newsletters, lessons and editorial planning.
How to use this tool
Paste your text, choose an approximate reading speed and calculate. The result is based on the number of words in the text divided by the selected words-per-minute rate. Actual reading time varies with subject complexity, language, formatting and the reader.
- Open the Reading Time Calculator page on Tervilo.
- Enter or paste the text you want to work with.
- Choose any options relevant to the task.
- Run the tool and review the result before copying or publishing it.
How the calculation or transformation works
Estimated minutes = word count ÷ words per minute. A 1,000-word article at 200 words per minute is estimated at five minutes. This is an estimate, not a measurement of an individual reader’s actual time.
Common uses
- Article reading-time labels
- Editorial planning
- Course and lesson planning
- Newsletter length estimation
- Long-form content review
Privacy and browser-side processing
Tervilo's text tools are designed to process the text in your browser. For ordinary text-editing tasks this can reduce the need to send your content to an application server. Even with browser-side tools, review your organization's security requirements before pasting confidential, regulated or sensitive information into any website.
Related text tools
Explore the Text Tools category for related utilities such as the Word Counter, Character Counter, Case Converter and JSON Formatter.
Frequently asked questions
The FAQ section below covers common questions about this tool, its counting method and practical limitations.
Questions & Answers
Frequently Asked Questions
What reading speed should I use?
Around 200 words per minute is a useful general starting point for ordinary adult prose, but actual speed varies by reader and subject.
Is reading time exact?
No. It is an estimate based on word count divided by a selected words-per-minute rate.