Read the passage below as fast as you can while still understanding it. Click Start, read, then click Stop.
Passage: 109 words · Read at your natural pace
Run the speed test or enter your reading details to see your WPM score.
What Is a Good Reading Speed?
The typical adult reads silently at about 238 words per minute for nonfiction and 260 for fiction, according to Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies. At 238 WPM a 75,000-word novel takes about 5 hours 15 minutes. Time yourself on the 109-word passage above, enter your own numbers, or pick a book to see how long it will take you.
Reading speed is measured in words per minute (WPM). The average adult reads silently at about 238 WPM for nonfiction and 260 WPM for fiction, and reads aloud at about 183 WPM (Brysbaert, 2019 meta-analysis). Most people land roughly between 175 and 300 WPM. Claims of 700 to 1,000 WPM with full understanding are not supported by research; at those speeds people are skimming.
Your reading speed varies significantly by material. Technical manuals, legal documents, and academic papers are read at 100-150 WPM. Leisure fiction is read at 200-300 WPM. Skimming for key information can reach 700+ WPM. The "optimal" speed is the fastest you can read while retaining 70% or more of the content.
Average Adult: 200-250 WPM
Above Average: 300 WPM
Fast Reader: 400-500 WPM
Speed Reader: 700-1000 WPM
How to Increase Your Reading Speed
The most reliable way to read faster is to read more. Practice and a larger vocabulary speed up word recognition, and background knowledge lets you move quickly through familiar topics. Popular advice to "stop subvocalizing" is not backed by research: the inner voice helps comprehension, and suppressing it tends to hurt understanding.
Other effective techniques include using a finger or pen as a pacer to guide your eyes across the page, reducing regressions (re-reading sentences), expanding your eye span to take in 2-3 words per fixation instead of one, and practicing with progressively more challenging material. Consistency matters more than intensity. Reading 30 minutes per day at a deliberate pace improves speed faster than occasional marathon sessions.
Average Reading Speed: What the Research Says
Brysbaert pooled 190 studies with 18,573 adult readers of English for silent reading, and 77 studies for reading aloud.
| Type of reading | Average speed | 1,000 words takes |
|---|---|---|
| Silent, nonfiction | 238 WPM | 4 min 12 s |
| Silent, fiction | 260 WPM | 3 min 51 s |
| Reading aloud | 183 WPM | 5 min 28 s |
Fiction reads faster mainly because its words are shorter on average. Most adults fall roughly between 175 and 300 WPM for silent reading, so a result anywhere in that band is normal.
How Long Books Take at Different Speeds
Pure reading time, computed as word count divided by WPM. Breaks and rereading add to it.
| Book | Words | 200 WPM | 238 WPM | 300 WPM | 400 WPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Great Gatsby | 47,094 | 3h 55m | 3h 18m | 2h 37m | 1h 58m |
| Typical novel | 75,000 | 6h 15m | 5h 15m | 4h 10m | 3h 8m |
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | 77,325 | 6h 27m | 5h 25m | 4h 18m | 3h 13m |
| The Lord of the Rings (trilogy) | 481,103 | 40h 6m | 33h 41m | 26h 44m | 20h 3m |
What Actually Makes You Faster
A major 2016 review by Keith Rayner and colleagues found no shortcut around a basic trade-off: when you push speed well past your normal rate, comprehension drops. Hearing the words in your head (subvocalization) is part of how skilled readers understand text, and trying to suppress it hurts comprehension.
- Read more. Practice and a bigger vocabulary make word recognition faster, which is where lasting speed comes from.
- Know the topic. Familiar material reads much faster than new material, whatever your usual WPM.
- Skim on purpose. Skimming is a valid way to find what you need or preview a text, as long as you accept that you will miss details.
Method and sources. Reading rates: Brysbaert, M. (2019), How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate, Journal of Memory and Language. Speed and comprehension: Rayner, Schotter, Masson, Potter and Treiman (2016), So much to read, so little time, Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Screen versus paper: Delgado and colleagues (2018), Educational Research Review. Book times computed as words ÷ WPM; word counts are commonly cited estimates and vary by edition. Test WPM = 109 words ÷ seconds × 60.
Reading Speed Questions
What is the average reading speed?
The average adult reads silently at about 238 words per minute (WPM) for nonfiction and 260 WPM for fiction, according to Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies with 18,573 readers. Reading aloud averages about 183 WPM. Claims of 1,000 WPM or more with full comprehension are not supported by research.
How long does it take to read a book?
At 250 WPM (average), a 300-page novel containing about 75,000 words takes approximately 5 hours. A short book of 50,000 words takes 3.3 hours. War and Peace (580,000 words) takes about 38 hours at average speed. The Bible (780,000 words) takes approximately 52 hours. Most people read a typical 250-page book in 4-6 hours of total reading time spread across several sessions.
How can I increase my reading speed?
The approach with the best evidence is simply reading more: practice and a growing vocabulary make word recognition faster. Knowing the subject helps a lot, and skimming is useful when you only need the main points. A 2016 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest found that speed reading courses and apps raise speed mainly by lowering comprehension, and that suppressing your inner voice makes understanding worse.
What is a good reading speed?
Context matters: 200-300 WPM is average with good comprehension. 300-400 WPM is above average. 400-700 WPM is fast reading. Above 700 WPM is speed reading. However, reading speed alone is meaningless without comprehension. A person who reads 250 WPM with 95% retention outperforms someone who reads 700 WPM with 40% retention. Aim for the fastest speed at which you can retain 70% or more.
Does reading speed affect comprehension?
Yes. There is a trade-off: pushing well beyond your normal rate lowers how much you understand and remember. A 2016 review by Keith Rayner and colleagues in Psychological Science in the Public Interest concluded that the speeds promised by commercial speed reading programs cannot be reached with normal comprehension. The best speed is the one at which you still understand what you need from the text.
What is subvocalization and should I stop it?
Subvocalization is the inner voice many people hear while reading silently. It is a normal part of skilled reading, and silent reading is still faster than reading aloud (about 238 versus 183 WPM on average). Research reviewed by Rayner and colleagues in 2016 found that trying to suppress it harms comprehension, so there is no need to stop it.
How many words are in a typical book?
Word counts vary widely by genre. A typical novel: 70,000-100,000 words. A short novel: 50,000-70,000 words. Epic fantasy: 100,000-300,000+ words. Nonfiction business book: 50,000-70,000 words. Children's chapter book: 20,000-40,000 words. Short story collection: 30,000-50,000 words. A standard paperback page contains approximately 250-300 words, so a 300-page book is roughly 75,000-90,000 words.
Is speed reading real?
Speed reading as marketed (thousands of WPM with full comprehension) is not supported by the scientific evidence. The eyes and brain can only take in and understand text so fast. Regular reading and familiarity with a subject do make people faster, but very high speeds are really skimming, which is useful for previewing material but not for deep understanding.
Does reading on screen vs paper affect speed?
Speed differences are small in modern studies, but comprehension is not always equal. A 2018 meta-analysis by Delgado and colleagues found a modest advantage for paper, especially for informational texts and when readers were under time pressure. Scrolling and the habit of skimming on screens seem to play a part. For study or dense material, paper or an e-reader without distractions is a sensible choice.
How is reading speed tested accurately?
Accurate reading speed testing requires: a passage of known word count, a timer, reading at your normal comprehension pace (not skimming), and a comprehension check afterward to verify you understood what you read. Simply timing yourself reading without a comprehension check measures eye movement speed, not actual reading speed. This calculator provides a baseline test. For precise measurement, repeat the test 3 times with different passages and average the results.
How fast do people read aloud?
About 183 words per minute on average, based on 77 studies in Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis. That is about 23% slower than silent reading of nonfiction (238 WPM), because you have to pronounce every word.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
At the average silent rate of 238 WPM, about 4 minutes 12 seconds. At 200 WPM it takes 5 minutes, and at 300 WPM about 3 minutes 20 seconds. A 2,500-word article takes about 10 and a half minutes at the average rate.