Education 2026-05-04 2 min read By Konvertibly Team

Reading Time Calculator: Words Per Minute and Article Length

Calculate how long it takes to read any text based on your reading speed. Find your words per minute (WPM), estimate blog post reading time, and improve reading speed.

Reading Time Calculation

Knowing reading time helps set reader expectations on blog posts, plan study sessions, and estimate how long an audiobook or speech will take.

Basic Formula

Reading time (min) = Word count / WPM
WPM = Words per minute reading speed

Average adult reading speeds:
  Silent reading:  200-300 WPM (average: 238)
  Out loud:        125-150 WPM
  Speed reading:   400-1000+ WPM (with comprehension trade-off)
  Audiobook:       130-175 WPM (narration speed)

Worked Examples

Blog post (1,200 words) at 250 WPM:
Time = 1200/250 = 4.8 minutes ≈ 5 min read

Novel (80,000 words) at 250 WPM:
Time = 80,000/250 = 320 minutes ≈ 5.3 hours

Speech (2,500 words) out loud at 130 WPM:
Time = 2500/130 ≈ 19 minutes

Characters vs Words

Average English word ≈ 5 characters + 1 space = 6 chars
Word count ≈ character count / 6
CJK text (Chinese/Japanese/Korean): 300-600 characters/min

Calculate reading time: Free Reading Time Calculator