How to use the reading time calculator
A "5 min read" label at the top of an article, a newsletter that has to fit a commute, a script that must not overrun a slot: all of them come down to word count divided by reading speed. Paste your text and this tool reports the estimate in minutes and seconds, along with word and character counts.
The default of 250 words per minute is a rough figure for an adult reading silently on screen. It is not an official standard, and real speed swings widely with subject difficulty, jargon and how much the reader already knows. That is why the speed box is editable and the fast, average and careful presets are only starting points. Checking two or three speeds gives you a range, which is more honest than a single number.
Words are counted by splitting on whitespace, so hyphenated compounds count as one word. Characters are counted by grapheme, meaning one emoji counts as one character rather than the two units a raw string length would report.
Nothing you paste leaves your browser, so unpublished drafts stay private.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a commonly cited approximation for adult silent reading on screen, not an official standard. Treat it as an editable starting point rather than a fixed rule.
No. Speaking is slower than silent reading, usually well under 200 words per minute. For a talk or a recorded voiceover, use a speech duration calculator instead.