Reading Time & Speaking Time Calculator
Text
Paste any text and instantly see how long it takes to read (silently) and to speak (aloud). Default reading speed is 238 wpm (Brysbaert 2019 meta-analysis); default speaking is 140 wpm (typical conversational pace). Five presets cover slow/avg/fast readers and TED-talk / podcast speaking paces. Word counts handle CJK characters as one-word-each — accurate for Korean, Japanese, and Chinese text.
Presets
Reading time
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Speaking time
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Words
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Characters
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Sentences
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Paragraphs
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Estimates assume silent reading and continuous speaking — pauses, slides, and audience reaction will add time.
How to use
- Paste your text — article, blog post, talk script, anything.
- Adjust reading and speaking WPM, or pick a preset.
- Times update live alongside word/sentence/paragraph counts.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does 238 wpm come from?
- Brysbaert (2019) meta-analyzed 190 studies and found 238 wpm for silent reading of English non-fiction. 175 for fiction, 300+ for skimming. 238 is a good default.
- Is 140 wpm right for a presentation?
- 140 is conversational; presentations often slow to 100–130 wpm for emphasis. TED talks average ~155 wpm. Pick the preset that matches your style.
- How is CJK counted?
- Each CJK ideograph (Chinese hanzi, Japanese kanji/kana, Korean hangul) counts as one 'word' for both reading and speaking — close to the right estimate without needing language-specific tokenizers.
- Why no 'characters' time?
- Reading speed correlates with words, not characters. Variation in word length averages out in any reasonable sample.
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