Reading time calculator
Estimate reading time from the word count and a rate you choose. The default 250 words per minute is a planning assumption, not a measured reading speed for you or a language.
How to use
Paste text, then select 150/200/250/300 or enter another rate. Time is rounded up to seconds. Locale-aware Intl.Segmenter counts words and sentences when supported; characters count Unicode code points, including spaces.
Questions and answers
Why can word counts and real reading time differ?
Punctuation, apostrophes, abbreviations and language affect word boundaries. Older browsers use the displayed approximate fallback. Difficult material, reading aloud, images, familiarity and comprehension change actual time. The text is processed in the page and is not uploaded by this tool.
Checks and limits
Checked: empty input, 250 words at 250 words/minute = 60 seconds, French apostrophes, Arabic sentence punctuation, Indonesian words, Unicode emoji count, invalid rate and approximate fallback.
Automated Chromium checks covered working controls, invalid input, reset and mobile layout. This does not certify every browser, physical device or linguistic nuance.
Technical references
Related tools
Maintained by GadgetsFocus. Updated October 2, 2026. Implementation and translations were reviewed with AI assistance; no independent native-speaker review is recorded.