How reading time is calculated
Reading time is the number of words divided by your reading speed in words per minute (WPM). A 1,000-word article read at 200 WPM takes 5 minutes; an 80,000-word novel read at 238 WPM takes about 336 minutes, or 5 hours 36 minutes.
The default speed is 200 WPM, a little under the adult average, because most people read more slowly when they read carefully or in a second language. For a personal figure, measure your speed with the reading speed test and enter it as a custom speed.
Reading time by book length
| Words | 150 WPM (slow) | 238 WPM (average) | 300 WPM (fast) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 (long article) | 6 min 40 s | 4 min 12 s | 3 min 20 s |
| 30,000 (novella) | 3 h 20 min | 2 h 6 min | 1 h 40 min |
| 50,000 (short novel) | 5 h 33 min | 3 h 30 min | 2 h 47 min |
| 80,000 (typical novel) | 8 h 53 min | 5 h 36 min | 4 h 27 min |
| 100,000 (long novel) | 11 h 7 min | 7 h 0 min | 5 h 33 min |
| 120,000 (long classic) | 13 h 20 min | 8 h 24 min | 6 h 40 min |
Typical word counts
| Text | Approximate words |
|---|---|
| Short story | 1,000–7,500 |
| Novella | 20,000–40,000 |
| Novel | 60,000–100,000 |
| The Old Man and the Sea | about 27,000 |
| Animal Farm | about 30,000 |
| The Great Gatsby | about 47,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | about 77,000 |
| Pride and Prejudice | about 122,000 |
Reading time for English learners
If English is not your first language, your speed depends strongly on the text. The same reader might manage 200 WPM in a graded reader at their level and 90 WPM in an unsimplified novel. When you plan a book, test your speed on a page of that book: time yourself for two minutes, count the words you read and divide by two.
If your speed drops below about 100 WPM, the book is probably above your level. The text difficulty checker will tell you, and an easier book will get you further in the same time. Okuzeka has free English books sorted by level.
Plan a reading habit
Small daily sessions add up. At 20 minutes a day and 200 WPM you read about 4,000 words a day, a typical 80,000-word novel in about three weeks and around 18 novels a year. The daily reading field in the calculator shows the same for any book.
