Reading Time Estimator calculates how long it takes to read a block of text at three reading speeds: 200 wpm (slow), 250 wpm (average), and 400 wpm (fast). It also shows word count, character count, and sentence count. Useful for blog posts, articles, and presentations.
200 wpm is a careful/slow read, 250 wpm is the commonly cited adult average, and 400 wpm represents a fast reader or someone scanning familiar content.
It is a useful approximation based purely on word count. Dense technical content, code samples, or content with many images and headers takes longer than these estimates suggest. Use it as a guideline, not a guarantee.
The text is trimmed and split on whitespace, so each run of non-space characters counts as one word. Hyphenated words and numbers count as a single word each.
Sentences are detected by matching runs of text ending in a period, exclamation mark, or question mark. Abbreviations (like 'e.g.' or 'Dr.') can cause the sentence count to be slightly inflated.
Reading speed varies a lot between readers and content types. Showing slow, average, and fast estimates gives you a realistic range instead of a single number that might not match your audience.
It's built for reading, not speaking. Spoken narration is typically slower than silent reading (closer to 130-160 wpm), so treat these estimates as an upper bound for script length, not a direct match.
No — the tool counts words in the raw text only. It doesn't account for the extra time readers spend scanning headers, bullet lists, or images, which can meaningfully increase real reading time.
