WordBench guide
How Long Does It Take to Read 1000 Words?
At the average adult silent reading speed of 238 words per minute, a figure from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies and over 18,000 readers, 1,000 words takes about 4 minutes 12 seconds to read. Reading aloud is slower: WordBench estimates speaking time at a comfortable presentation pace of 130 words per minute, or about 7 minutes 42 seconds for the same 1,000 words.
Keyword density
Type at least a few words and the most frequent terms will appear here, filler words aside.
The 238 words-per-minute figure comes from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis, which combined 190 studies and 18,573 participants and found that adults silently reading English non-fiction average 238 words per minute. Fiction runs slightly faster, around 260 words per minute, likely because its words and sentences tend to be shorter and more predictable. WordBench uses this same 238 figure for the reading-time estimate shown on the counter above and on every tool page.
Speaking time is a separate, more conservative estimate: 130 words per minute, closer to a comfortable pace for reading aloud or presenting to a room than a peer-reviewed oral-reading benchmark. It exists to give a rough sense of how long a script or speech will take, not to time a reading to the second.
Paste any draft into the counter above and its reading time and speaking time update instantly using these two rates.
A 500-word blog post runs about 2 minutes 6 seconds to read silently. A 2,500-word long-form article runs about 10 minutes 30 seconds. The table below covers more lengths at both rates.
Word count to reading and speaking time
| Words | Read time (238 wpm) | Speak time (130 wpm) |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 1 min 3 sec | 1 min 55 sec |
| 500 | 2 min 6 sec | 3 min 51 sec |
| 1,000 | 4 min 12 sec | 7 min 42 sec |
| 1,500 | 6 min 18 sec | 11 min 32 sec |
| 2,500 | 10 min 30 sec | 19 min 14 sec |
| 5,000 | 21 min 1 sec | 38 min 28 sec |
Frequently asked questions
Where does the 238 words-per-minute figure come from? Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis in the Journal of Memory and Language, which reviewed 190 studies covering 18,573 participants and found adults silently reading English non-fiction average 238 words per minute. It is one of the largest reviews of reading-speed research to date.
Where does the 238 words-per-minute figure come from?
Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis in the Journal of Memory and Language, which reviewed 190 studies covering 18,573 participants and found adults silently reading English non-fiction average 238 words per minute. It is one of the largest reviews of reading-speed research to date.
Is 238 words per minute the same for every kind of text?
No. Brysbaert's review found fiction is read slightly faster, around 260 words per minute, likely because novels tend to use shorter, more predictable words and sentences than non-fiction. 238 is the non-fiction average, which is what WordBench uses as a general-purpose estimate.
Why does speaking take longer than silent reading?
Speaking has to be paced for a listener to follow and for the speaker to breathe, so it runs slower than the eye can silently scan text. WordBench estimates speaking time at 130 words per minute, a comfortable presentation pace rather than a rushed one.
How is reading time calculated on WordBench?
Word count divided by 238 words per minute, converted to minutes and seconds. The counter above recalculates it live as you type or paste, and the table on this page shows the same math for common word counts.