Enter how many words you read and how many seconds it took to get your reading speed in words per minute, compared with the research average.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| 500 words in 120 s | 250 wpm |
| 1,000 words in 252 s | 238 wpm - exactly the adult average |
| 300 words in 60 s | 300 wpm |
| 1,000 words in 135 s | 444 wpm - scanning, not reading |
| Activity | Words per minute | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adult silent reading, non-fiction | 238 | Brysbaert (2019), 190 studies |
| Adult silent reading, fiction | ~260 | Brysbaert (2019) |
| Reading aloud | 183 | Brysbaert (2019), 77 studies |
| Careful / study reading of technical text | ~180 | Brysbaert (2019), difficulty effect |
| Prepared speech with pauses | 130-150 | Public-speaking convention |
| Audiobook narration | 150-160 | ACX narrator guidelines (~155 wpm) |
| Fast reader | ~350 | Upper end of the normal distribution |
| Skimming / scanning | 450+ | Not reading for comprehension |
Speeds above about 400 wpm in normal adults mean scanning, not reading. The 2019 meta-analysis found no evidence for distinct "reading gears" — the only real distinction is between reading (comprehending most of the text) and scanning for a specific piece of information.
Pick text of the type you actually read, start the timer, read for comprehension, then stop. Two mistakes spoil the number: choosing text you have already read (you will skim) and testing with fiction when your real workload is technical prose. A 25% drop between narrative news and a scientific abstract is normal and expected.
If you want a reliable figure, test three times on different days and take the middle value. Reading speed also varies with time of day, sleep and how interested you are in the material — a single measurement is a snapshot, not a property.
Most old reading-time tools use 200 words per minute. That number traces back to a 1960s study of mid-century college readers and it is low for today's adults. The current best estimate is Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis in the Journal of Memory and Language (volume 109, article 104047), which pooled 190 independent studies and 18,573 participants: adults silently reading English non-fiction average 238 words per minute, fiction runs slightly faster at about 260 wpm, and reading aloud averages 183 wpm.
Two things follow. First, the spread is wide — most adults fall between roughly 175 and 300 wpm on non-fiction, with a standard deviation near 60 wpm. Second, reading speed is not a measure of intelligence: it drops about 25% when text moves from narrative news to a scientific abstract, and readers over 70 lose roughly one to two words per minute per year of age.
For an adult reading English non-fiction silently, 238 words per minute is the research average; most adults fall between 175 and 300. Anything in that band is normal, and speed is not a measure of comprehension.
Divide the number of words by the time in minutes. If you read 500 words in 2 minutes, that is 500 ÷ 2 = 250 wpm.
The 2019 meta-analysis found no evidence for distinct reading gears in normal readers. Speeds above roughly 400 wpm in ordinary adults reflect scanning for specific information rather than reading with comprehension.
Familiar narrative structure reduces the processing cost per word. Fiction averages about 260 wpm against 238 wpm for non-fiction, a difference of roughly 9%.
Yes, modestly. Speed peaks between roughly 25 and 35, then declines by about one to two words per minute per year after 70. Individual differences are far larger than the age effect.