A reading time estimate tells your audience how big a commitment an article is before they start. Sites from Medium to news publishers show a “5 min read” label because it sets expectations and improves engagement. The estimate is a simple, reliable function of word count and reading speed.
How it works
The calculation is a single division. Count the words, choose a reading speed in words per minute, and convert to time:
seconds = (words / wordsPerMinute) × 60
minutes = floor(seconds / 60)
remaining = round(seconds mod 60)The default speed is 238 words per minute, the average adult English silent-reading rate from published reading research. Lower speeds model careful or non-native readers; higher speeds model skimmers; the 130 WPM option matches typical spoken delivery for scripts and voice-overs.
Tips and example
A 1,200-word blog post at 238 WPM takes about 5 minutes and 2 seconds to read. The same text read aloud at 130 WPM runs to roughly 9 minutes, which is why podcast and video scripts always estimate at a slower rate. When labelling a page, round up to the nearest whole minute so readers are pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed, and add a buffer for any code, tables, or images that the word count does not capture.