Free tool · Reading
Reading time calculator
At the adult average of 238 words a minute, a 300-page book of about 82,500 words takes about 5 hours 47 minutes to read. Change the pages, words per page or speed to get your own time.
At 238 words a minute, 82,500 words take about 5 hours 47 minutes to read, or 18 days at 20 minutes a day.
Reading time
5 h 47 minto read 82,500 words at 238 words a minute
- Words
- 82,500 (300 pages × 275)
- At 20 minutes a day
- 18 days
- Pages an hour
- 51.9
- Books this long in a year, at 20 min a day
- 21.1
- As an audiobook (140 to 180 wpm)
- 7 h 38 min to 9 h 49 min
- Read aloud (183 wpm)
- 7 h 31 min
Page counts hide big differences in words per page, and your speed changes from book to book.
Reading averages: Brysbaert (2019). Audiobook narration: 140 to 180 wpm, as reported by Brysbaert (2019).
Show the numbers
| Minutes a day | Days to finish | Books this long a year |
|---|---|---|
| 10 min | 35 days | 10.5 |
| 15 min | 24 days | 15.8 |
| 20 min | 18 days | 21.1 |
| 30 min | 12 days | 31.6 |
| 45 min | 8 days | 47.4 |
| 60 min | 6 days | 63.2 |
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type or answer is sent anywhere.
How to use the calculator
Under Measure by, choose Pages, Word count, Paste text or Books a year. Enter the pages and words per page, type a word count, or paste the text itself; nothing you paste leaves your browser. Then pick a speed: the nonfiction or fiction average, My test if you’ve taken the reading speed test on this device, or Custom. Set Minutes of reading a day to see how many days the book will take and the date you’d finish. Books a year works the other way round: enter how many books you want to read, and it gives the daily reading time that gets you there.
How the time is worked out
The sums are short:
- Words = pages × words per page
- Minutes to read = words ÷ words per minute
- Days to finish = minutes to read ÷ minutes a day, rounded up
- Books a year = minutes a day × 365 × words per minute ÷ words per book
- Pages an hour = words per minute × 60 ÷ words per page
With the defaults, 300 pages at 275 words a page is 82,500 words. At 238 words a minute that’s 346.6 minutes, or 5 hours 47 minutes. Twenty minutes a day covers it in 17.3 days, which the calculator rounds up to 18. The same speed gives 51.9 pages an hour.
| Pages (275 words each) | Words | At 238 wpm (nonfiction) | At 260 wpm (fiction) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 27,500 | 1 h 56 min | 1 h 46 min |
| 200 | 55,000 | 3 h 51 min | 3 h 32 min |
| 300 | 82,500 | 5 h 47 min | 5 h 17 min |
| 500 | 137,500 | 9 h 38 min | 8 h 49 min |
Why words per page changes the answer
The 275 words a page default is a round number we chose, not a measured average, and it’s the biggest assumption in the page mode. A 300-page book at 200 words a page is 60,000 words, about 4 hours 12 minutes at 238 words a minute. At 400 words a page it’s 120,000 words and about 8 hours 24 minutes. The page count stays the same and the reading time doubles.
To check your own book, count the words in 3 full lines, divide by 3, and multiply by the number of lines on a full page. If you know the word count from an e-reader or the publisher, switch to Word count and skip pages altogether.
Which reading speed to pick
The two presets come from Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies with 18,573 adults reading English silently. Nonfiction averaged 238 words a minute, with most adults between 175 and 300. Fiction averaged 260, with most between 200 and 320. Use the nonfiction figure for articles, textbooks and reports, and the fiction figure for novels.
Your own number beats either average. The reading speed test times you on a short passage of Scroll lessons and checks your understanding with 3 questions; once you’ve taken it, your result appears here as My test. Brysbaert also notes that children, older adults and second-language readers are slower than these averages.
How many books you can read in a year
The goal mode turns minutes a day into books a year. These figures use 82,500-word books (300 pages at 275 words) and 238 words a minute:
For comparison, US adults said they read a mean of 12.6 books in the past year in Gallup’s December 2021 survey, down from 15.6 in 2016; that count includes e-books and audiobooks. Twelve books of this length at 238 words a minute need about 11 minutes 24 seconds a day.
The American Time Use Survey found that Americans aged 15 and over spent an average of 16 minutes a day reading for personal interest in 2025. If all of it went to books like these, that would be about 17 books a year (our calculation). The average includes people who didn’t read at all that day, so readers spend longer and non-readers spend nothing.
Audiobooks and reading aloud
The calculator also shows each text as an audiobook. Brysbaert reports, from other studies, that audiobooks are narrated at 140 to 180 words a minute, so the same 82,500-word book takes 7 hours 38 minutes to 9 hours 49 minutes to hear, against 5 hours 47 minutes to read silently at 238. Reading it out loud yourself, at the average of 183 words a minute, takes about 7 hours 31 minutes. To time a speech or a script instead of a book, use words to minutes.
What the result doesn’t tell you
Every figure assumes you read each word at one steady speed. Real reading has pauses, rereading, hard chapters and skimmed ones, and your speed changes from book to book with the subject, the writing and how tired you are. Page counts hide big differences in words per page. Treat the result as a planning estimate for a reading goal, and measure your own speed for a closer one.
Reading time calculator: common questions
How long does it take to read 100 pages?
About 1 hour 56 minutes at 238 words a minute, if each page holds 275 words (27,500 words in all). At the fiction average of 260 words a minute, it's about 1 hour 46 minutes. Pages vary a lot, so count the words on one of yours for a closer answer.
How long does it take to read a 300-page book?
About 5 hours 47 minutes at 238 words a minute, assuming 275 words a page, or 82,500 words. Reading 20 minutes a day, you'd finish in 18 days. Books differ in words per page, so the same page count can take noticeably more or less time.
How many pages can you read in an hour?
About 52 pages at 238 words a minute and 275 words a page, or about 57 at the fiction average of 260. Pages an hour is your words per minute times 60, divided by the words on a page.
How many books can you read in a year?
About 21 books of 300 pages if you read 20 minutes a day at 238 words a minute, or 10.5 at 10 minutes a day. For comparison, US adults reported reading a mean of 12.6 books in the past year in Gallup's December 2021 survey, which counted e-books and audiobooks.
Is listening to an audiobook slower than reading?
Usually, yes. Audiobooks are narrated at about 140 to 180 words a minute, while adults read silently at about 238 (nonfiction) to 260 (fiction), according to Brysbaert's 2019 review. A 300-page book that takes 5 hours 47 minutes to read takes about 7 hours 38 minutes to 9 hours 49 minutes to hear at normal playback speed.
Related tools
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Guides
- How to remember what you readRecall a chapter before you reread it, write one sentence from memory and review it days later. What the reading research supports, and why highlighting rates low.
- How to learn something new every day in 5 minutesA five-minute daily routine: read one short explainer, answer a question on it, review it three days later. Includes a 30-day plan across eight topics, app optional.