What words-per-minute values are used?

Estimates are shown at 150 wpm (slow), 200 wpm (average), and 300 wpm (fast). These are typical figures for English prose on screen.

How are words counted?

Runs of non-whitespace are treated as words. Numbers, hyphenated tokens, and contractions each count as one word.

Is the input uploaded?

No. The word count and time math happen in your browser; the article text stays local.

200 wpm read · 130 speak · 400 skim

Estimate reading time for any text

Three speeds — read (200 wpm), speak (130 wpm), skim (400 wpm). Custom WPM supported.

Reading Time Calculator

Words

445 B

Reading

21 sec

200 wpm

Speaking

32 sec

130 wpm

Skimming

11 sec

400 wpm

input · article

output · time estimates

Words69Reading (200 wpm)21 secSpeaking (130 wpm)32 secSkimming (400 wpm)11 sec

Quick Start

How to estimate reading time

Word count ÷ words-per-minute gives time. Reading averages 200-250 wpm; speaking 130; skimming 400.

01
Paste text
Article, blog post, or any prose.
Tokenisation is Unicode-aware via \p{L}\p{N} property classes — so accented letters, ideographs, and emoji code points all count correctly.
textUTF-8Unicodecode pointslive
input · textraw · UTF-8
```
Lorem ipsum…
```
loaded · UTF-8UTF-8 · ready
02
Live word count
Tool counts whitespace-separated tokens.
Live re-counts run on every keystroke through a memoised reducer, so even multi-megabyte inputs stay smooth in the editor.
wordslivememoisedoptionssnappy
count · optionslive · live
```
750 words
```
options applied · livelive
03
Pick WPM
Default 200 (adult silent reading). 250 for faster readers, 130 for spoken delivery.
Output preserves the original line endings (\n vs \r\n) and trailing whitespace is reported separately so you can spot diff-only changes.
customline endingswhitespacediff-cleanreproducible
wpm · counted200 · ready
```
200 wpm = 4 min
```
counted · livecounted
04
Three estimates
Reading / Speaking / Skimming side by side.
Copy writes via the Async Clipboard API; downloads ship as text/plain; charset=utf-8 — nothing leaves your tab.
3 speedsclipboardtext/plainblobclient-side
out · copiedready · done
```
✓ Copied
```
shipped · ready to shipsuccess

Pro tips

Text-processing fundamentals worth knowing

Tokenise with Unicode classes

Use \p{L}\p{N} with the u flag so accents, ideographs, and emoji count properly.

Normalise line endings

Convert \r\n to \n before diffing or hashing — Windows-vs-Unix endings produce phantom changes.

Mind invisible characters

Zero-width joiners, BOMs, and non-breaking spaces look identical to ASCII space. Strip them before comparison or storage.

Stream don’t slurp

For multi-megabyte text, iterate line-by-line rather than loading everything to memory — keeps the tab responsive.

Choose collation deliberately

Default JS sort is code-point order, not human alphabetical. Use Intl.Collator for locale-aware sorting.

Re-run after normalisation

NFC vs NFD changes byte length but not visible glyphs. String.prototype.normalize() before counts and comparisons.

Use Cases

When to estimate reading time

Anywhere you'd show '5 min read'.

Blog badges

Add '4 min read' badges to articles. Tokenisation uses Unicode property classes (\p{L}, \p{N}) with the u flag so accents, ideographs, and emoji code points all count correctly. Surrogate-pair-aware counts mean 🚀 weighs 1, not 2.

Unicode-correct

Tease length in the preview text. Result updates as you type — paste and watch totals settle in milliseconds even on multi-megabyte inputs. Heavy work runs through a memoised reducer so the editor never janks.

diff-clean

Podcast script

Use the speaking-time estimate to plan episodes. Output normalises line endings to LF for clean diffs across platforms. Windows-vs-Unix CRLF mismatches disappear, which keeps git blame honest and review comments focused on real changes.

instant counts

Presentation timing

Convert script length to talk time. Code-point counts are stable across NFC/NFD normalisation. Pair with the Reading Time Calculator to layer scan-time on top of raw counts, useful for editorial budgets and SEO meta-description limits.

platform-aware

Course modules

Time-budget reading assignments. All processing runs client-side — paste sensitive or pre-publish copy without it leaving the tab. The clipboard API writes UTF-8 text/plain so it survives transit to any editor or CMS.

code-point-accurate

Documentation

Help users decide if they have time for a page. Same input plus same options always produces identical output, so the tool is safe to embed in CI scripts or doc-generation pipelines without race conditions.

lossless

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Where does 200 wpm come from?

Average adult silent reading speed in English. 250 is fast reading; 130 is comfortable speaking; 400+ is skimming.

What counts as a word?

Whitespace-separated tokens. Punctuation attached to a word counts as one word.

Non-English text?

Word definition is the same. Speed averages vary by language; the default 200 wpm is calibrated for English.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. All processing runs locally.

How is < 1 min formatted?

Shown in seconds (rounded up). Otherwise in minutes.

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