What a toast duration should be measured against
A toast appears briefly without blocking the screen and then leaves on its own. Because the system decides when it goes, a duration shorter than the time needed to notice and read the message means people simply miss what happened. Enter the word count, your measured reading speed in WPM, and the duration to see the difference straight away.
How it is calculated, and the basis
Time needed = words divided by words per minute (WPM), times 60,000 ms, plus the time to notice if you enter it. Content with a time limit has to offer one of three things under the W3C accessibility guidelines success criterion 2.2.1 (Timing Adjustable, Level A): turning the limit off, adjusting it to at least ten times the default, or warning before expiry and allowing an extension of 20 seconds or more at least ten times. This reflects October 2026, and cases where the limit is essential, such as a live event, or longer than 20 hours are exceptions.
Limits
There is no official recommended duration, so none is proposed, and reading speed has no official value either, which is why you supply it. Screen reader announcement time, stacked notifications and character counts that change after translation are not modeled. This tool does not judge or certify accessibility conformance, so confirm the result with real user testing.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no official recommended figure, so this tool proposes none. It calculates the time needed to read the message from the word count and your measured reading speed (WPM), then compares that with your duration.
No official value exists because it varies by language and audience. The most accurate input is a words-per-minute (WPM) figure you measured with your own users on a message of similar length.
If it genuinely turns the auto-dismiss off, it satisfies the turn-off condition. If the message still disappears by itself after the duration, check that adjustment or extension is offered as well.