Read Time Calculator

Paste any text — an article, a script, an email, a chapter — and see how long it takes to read, with a reading speed you control and a read-aloud estimate for presenters.

100% in your browser — your text is never uploaded.
Your text
0 min
reading time
paste some text to begin
Reading speed
238 wpm
Words 0
Characters 0
Sentences 0
Read aloud 0 min

About the Read Time Calculator

That little "5 min read" label at the top of an article isn't a guess — it's words divided by reading speed. This tool does that math for any text you paste, and lets you set the reading speed yourself, because a dense technical manual and a breezy newsletter aren't read at the same pace.

It updates the moment you type or paste, and like everything on The Dollar Web it runs entirely in your browser — so a draft you haven't published, a confidential memo, or a script you're still polishing never gets uploaded anywhere.

What it shows

How the estimate works

Reading time is simply the word count divided by your chosen words-per-minute. The default of 238 wpm reflects the average adult silent reading speed for non-fiction English; Slow (150) suits dense or technical material and many non-native readers, while Fast (350) approximates skimming. Read-aloud time uses ~130 wpm, a comfortable speaking pace. These are well-established averages — actual times vary by reader and subject, so treat the number as a reliable estimate, not a stopwatch.

Handy for

No account, no upload, no limits — paste, read the number, get on with your day.

Related tools