Reading time and speaking time: how many words a minute?

How long will this article take to read? How many words do I need for a ten-minute talk? Both questions come down to the same thing: how many words a person gets through in a minute. The numbers are well studied, but the answers vary a lot between people and between kinds of text, so a single figure is only ever an estimate. This guide gives the typical speeds for silent reading and for speaking aloud, shows the sums for working out reading time and speech length with worked examples, covers the adjustments for slow, fast and technical material, and offers practical advice for timing a presentation, a wedding speech or a video script so it fits.

By Valtrinity. Updated 18 October 2026.

How fast do people read?

A large review of studies on reading, published in 2019, found that adults reading non-fiction silently in English average about 238 words per minute, and about 260 words per minute for fiction. These are averages. Individual readers range from around 150 to over 400, depending on practice, familiarity with the subject and the purpose of the reading.

Many websites use a round figure between 200 and 250 words per minute for a reading time label. That is a reasonable choice for general content. A value of 200 gives a slightly longer, more cautious time, which suits material that is dense or technical.

Reading on a screen is, on average, a little slower than on paper, and reading in a second language or on a small phone screen is slower again. A reading time is a guide for most readers, not a promise for every one.

How to calculate reading time

Divide the word count by the reading speed. A 1,500-word article at 238 words per minute takes 1,500 divided by 238, which is 6.3 minutes, so a label of 6 minutes is sensible. At 200 words per minute, the same article takes 7.5 minutes.

A 2,000-word guide at 238 words per minute takes 8.4 minutes, and a 600-word news item takes 2.5 minutes. To turn the decimal part into seconds, multiply by 60. 0.4 of a minute is 24 seconds, so 8.4 minutes is 8 minutes 24 seconds.

Round to the nearest minute for a label. Showing '8 min read' is clearer to most people than '8 minutes 24 seconds'. For very short pieces, say 'under a minute' or '1 min read'.

How fast do people speak?

Normal conversation in English is usually around 120 to 180 words per minute. For presentations and speeches, 130 to 150 words per minute is a comfortable pace for an audience to follow. Audiobook narrators often read at about 150 to 160 words per minute, and news presenters can be slightly faster.

Speaking is slower than reading because you need to form words and breathe, and because you pause for emphasis and for the audience to take things in. A fast talker can reach 200 words per minute or more, but most listeners then struggle to follow.

If your audience includes people who are not native English speakers, or who will be hearing technical material for the first time, aim for the lower end, about 120 to 130 words per minute.

How to plan a speech or talk

Multiply the minutes you have by the pace. For a 10-minute talk at 140 words per minute you need about 1,400 words if you read a script word for word. For a 5-minute wedding speech at 130 words per minute, around 650 words fills the time. A 3-minute video script at 150 words per minute needs about 450 words.

Remember to allow for things that take time but are not words: pauses, laughter, a slide or demonstration, and questions. If you plan to show a slide every minute and pause for a few seconds each time, cut about 10 per cent from the script. A 10-minute slot with an introduction and questions may leave only 7 or 8 minutes of material.

Always rehearse out loud with a timer. Reading silently is much faster than speaking and will give you a false sense of how long it takes. Time a full run-through, mark where you slowed down, and adjust the script.

Adjusting for the kind of text

Easy narrative reads quickly. Dense material, such as legal text, maths, tables and instructions with numbers, can be much slower, perhaps 100 to 150 words per minute, because readers stop to re-read and think. If your text is technical, use a slower figure for the label, or the estimate will be too short.

Lists and short paragraphs help readers scan, which can make the effective reading time shorter, since people skip what they do not need. A page that people scan may be read in a fraction of the full reading time, which is not the same as being understood.

Images, charts and code blocks also take time to absorb. If a page is full of them, add a minute or two to the label, or describe it as a number of steps instead of minutes.

Words, characters and subtitles

Word count itself needs a rule. Software counts a word as a run of characters between spaces, so a hyphenated term counts once and a number counts as a word. Different tools differ by a few per cent, which is not important for a reading time.

Subtitles work on a different scale. Viewers need to read the text while watching the picture, so subtitle lines are shown for long enough at a slower pace, commonly around 160 to 180 words per minute at the most, with fewer words per line. If you write subtitles, keep lines short and leave each on screen for a couple of seconds at least.

For headlines, social posts and meta descriptions, character counts matter more than words. A short social post of 280 characters is around 45 to 50 words. A 155-character description is roughly 25 words.

Practical tips

Pick one speed and use it everywhere on a site, so that reading times are consistent. State your assumption if it matters, for example 'based on 230 words per minute'.

Do not make the time shorter than the real figure to attract readers. If an article takes 12 minutes, say so. People who feel they were misled are less likely to come back.

For a talk, remember that the audience can take in less than the speaker would like. A good rule is one main idea per few minutes, with an example for each. If you are over time, cut a point rather than speeding up.

Tools mentioned in this guide

Frequently asked questions