Reading Time Estimator
How long does this piece take to read? Paste the text or enter a word count, adjust the pace, and see the silent and read-aloud times. Useful for live readings, podcast submissions, open mics, and anywhere a slot is measured in minutes instead of words.
Choosing a pace
Reading speed varies widely. The defaults on this page are:
- Silent reading: 250 words per minute. A common figure for comfortable adult silent reading of narrative prose. Dense nonfiction or highly literary prose typically reads slower — 180–220 wpm is more realistic for such work.
- Reading aloud: 130 words per minute. A deliberate, clear reading pace with natural pauses. News anchors average around 150 wpm. Audiobook narrators often fall between 140 and 180 wpm, but for your own live reading, 130 is a safer planning figure — you will almost always want to slow down in front of an audience, not speed up.
Adjust the pace above to your own comfort. Time yourself once with a timer on a one-minute sample of your own voice and use the result going forward.
How to use the result
For a live reading slot. If you have a ten-minute slot, aim for a piece that times at eight minutes at your reading pace. That buffer covers the introduction, a joke that lands unexpectedly, a sip of water, and the applause-pause at the end. Going over your slot is the single most common mistake at literary readings.
For a podcast audition. A three-minute sample at 130 wpm is about 390 words. Editors listening to submission reels have short patience; tight is better than padded.
For pacing a scene. The silent reading figure tells you how a reader will experience the density of a given section. A 2,500-word chapter is about a ten-minute read. If you want to know whether a scene "drags," compare its silent-time estimate to the amount of story it moves forward.