Reading time

What it's for

It says how long a text takes to read, silently and out loud. Those are two different questions serving two different jobs: whoever writes an article wants «4 min read» at the top, which is the piece of information that decides whether you start; whoever records a video, a podcast or a speech wants to know whether the script fits the time available, before recording it three times.

The two numbers, and where they come from

Silent reading is worked out at 200 words a minute: that's the figure usually used for ordinary prose and an adult reader, and it sits in the middle of the real range, which runs from a little under 200 to about 250. Reading aloud is worked out at 130 words a minute, because the voice is slower than the eye: you breathe, you articulate, you stop at the punctuation.

They are averages, not promises. A technical text full of numbers and proper nouns reads much more slowly, a flowing story much faster, and everyone has their own pace. The number is there to decide («is this too long?»), not to time you.

How the words are counted

A word is whatever sits between two spaces, so digits and acronyms count as words: it's the same rule word processors use. The number changes as you type, without pressing anything, so you see the effect of a cut straight away.

Nearby tools

For the full count of characters, sentences and paragraphs there is Word counter. If the text is too long because it's written in a complicated way, before cutting it it's worth measuring it with How readable is a text, which says which sentences to shorten. Whoever works in cartelle finds that count in Editorial pages, and whoever has to stay within a social network's limit in Social character counter.