About the Reading Time Calculator
Reading time is a useful number for authors. It helps you describe a book honestly (a two hour read), plan a serial or newsletter, set expectations for a short guide, or compare your book with others in your category. It also tells you roughly how long an audiobook narration would run.
Enter a word count, or paste text and let the tool count it, then pick a reading speed. The result shows the reading time at that speed, plus a table for every preset: slow and careful reading, an average adult pace, fast reading, skimming and typical audiobook narration. You can also enter your own speed in words per minute.
Add the minutes a reader might spend per day and the calculator shows how many days it takes to finish, which is handy for reading challenges, book club schedules or course style non-fiction. If you need a word count from a file, use the Word Count Calculator.
How It Works
Reading time in minutes is the word count divided by the reading speed in words per minute. The result is shown in hours and minutes.
The comparison table repeats the calculation for each preset speed so you can see the range across readers.
Days to finish divides total reading minutes by minutes per day and rounds up, since a partial session still takes a day.
Formula
- Reading time
- Minutes = Words ÷ Words per minute
- Days to finish
- Days = ⌈Reading minutes ÷ Minutes per day⌉
Example
A 75,000-word novel at an average adult pace, 30 minutes a day
- 75,000 ÷ 238 words per minute = 315.1 minutes, shown as 5 hr 15 min.
- 315.1 ÷ 30 minutes a day = 10.5, rounded up to 11 days.
- At 150 wpm the same book takes 8 hr 20 min; at 300 wpm it takes 4 hr 10 min.
- Narrated at 155 wpm, it runs about 8 hr 4 min.
About 5 hours 15 minutes for an average reader, or 11 days at 30 minutes a day.
Important Notes
- Reading speed varies widely by person, genre and difficulty. Technical or dense non-fiction is read more slowly than light fiction.
- The audiobook figure is a narration pace estimate, not the length of a specific production. Pauses, chapter announcements and credits add time.
- Images, tables and workbook exercises are not included.
- Pasted text is counted in your browser and not uploaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an average reading speed?
A commonly cited average for adults reading non-technical English text silently is about 238 words per minute. Many readers fall between 200 and 300.
How long is a 300-page book to read?
It depends on words per page. At about 300 words per page, that is roughly 90,000 words, which is around 6 hr 18 min at 238 wpm. Enter your exact word count for a better figure.
Can I use this to estimate audiobook length?
Yes, roughly. Choose the audiobook narration preset (155 wpm) or enter your narrator's pace. Final runtime depends on the narrator and production.
Should I put reading time in my book description?
It can help for short non-fiction and guides, where readers value a quick read. Use a range or round figure rather than an exact minute count, since readers vary.
Why round days up?
If a book needs 10.5 days of reading at your daily pace, the reader still needs an 11th day to finish it.
Related KDP Tools
- Word Count CalculatorCount words, characters, sentences and paragraphs, with page and reading-time estimates.
- KDP Page Count CalculatorConvert word count to estimated pages, or pages to words, by trim and font size.
- Word CounterA fast, private word counter with top-word frequency.
- Book Launch ChecklistAn interactive checklist from manuscript to post-launch, saved in your browser.
- Book Title GeneratorGenerate title ideas from your genre, topic, audience, tone and keywords.
- Book Description FormatterClean up a book description, add headings and bullets, and count characters.