Reading Time Calculator

What you know

Amount

Silent speed, words a minute

Aloud speed, words a minute

Result

Silently23 min
Aloud36 min
Words5,000
Silently, minutes22.7
Aloud, minutes35.7
For a presentationabout 18 slides at two minutes each

Aloud takes considerably longer

Works out how long a text takes to read silently and aloud, and how many minutes of speaking it fills.

An adult reads about 220 words a minute silently and roughly 140 aloud. That gap of nearly half again is why a talk that 'reads in ten minutes' takes fifteen at the lectern.

For a presentation it is more useful to work backwards, from the time limit to the word count. A ten-minute talk is about 1,400 words, or roughly eight thousand characters. Anything more has to be read at a gallop.

What this calculator shows

Reading time silently and aloud
The word count when the input is characters
Roughly how many slides the text fills

What to keep in mind

The defaults are 220 words a minute silently and 140 aloud, both averages for an adult native speaker.
Technical text with formulas reads considerably slower, and aloud it also needs pauses.

FAQs

What reading speed is normal?

200 to 250 words a minute silently for an adult. Reading aloud with expression comes out at 130 to 150.

How many words for a ten-minute talk?

About 1,400 at a comfortable speaking pace, which is roughly eight thousand characters with spaces.

How long should one slide take?

Usually a minute and a half to two. A twenty-minute talk means 10 to 13 slides at most.

Why do I read slower than the estimate?

Speed depends heavily on the text: a scientific paper with terminology and formulas reads at half the pace of prose. The estimate is for average material.

Worked example

A five-thousand-word talk

Input: 5,000 words at 220 and 140 words a minute

Output: 23 minutes silently and 36 minutes aloud

Note: Thirty-six minutes is a lecture, not a talk. To fit a standard fifteen-minute slot the text needs cutting to about two thousand words.

Useful links

All tools in Study

Reading Time Calculator

Result

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Useful links