About Us

Reading Time Calculator is a small, independent website offering free tools for anyone who has to fit words into a clock: video creators timing a script, speakers and preachers preparing a talk, podcasters planning an episode, students facing a timed presentation, and writers estimating how long an article takes to read.

The tools do two jobs. In forward mode, paste a text (or enter its word count) and get its silent reading time and its speaking time at slow, average and fast speeds. In reverse mode, start from the minutes you have and get the word count you should write. A reference chart, a minutes-to-words table and a creator guide cover the questions people most often bring here.

Our speeds are published averages, stated openly on our methodology page: about 238 words per minute for average adult silent reading (from a research review of hundreds of studies) and about 130 wpm for comfortable speaking (the middle of the band presentation guidance commonly cites). Averages are starting points — every preset is adjustable, and we encourage you to measure and use your own speed.

The calculators run entirely in your browser. The text you paste is not sent to our servers, not stored in a database, and not shared with anyone. Your unpublished script is your business, and our tools are built to keep it that way.

The site is free to use, with no accounts and no paywalls. It currently carries no advertising and no affiliate links. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on this page and it will never influence the calculators' results.

Results are estimates for planning, not guarantees. A real audience, a difficult text or an attack of nerves will move your actual time — rehearse with a timer for anything that truly matters.