A reading speed test on a real passage, with three questions, compared with what 190 studies found.
5.0(1 rating)Read a short passage at your normal pace, answer three questions, and get your reading speed in words a minute.
Take the test
Read the passage at your normal pace, the way you'd read a book, then press Done. It's 397 words, and three short questions follow to check it was read, not skimmed.
What you type stays in this browser. The speeds are from a 2019 review of 190 studies, the audiobook rate is ACX's, and page lengths are measured on real books.
This free reading speed test times you on a real passage and gives your speed in words a minute.
Three questions afterward check that you read it rather than skimmed it. Then you see how you compare with the adults in 190 studies, and what your speed means for a book.
What is a reading speed test?
A reading speed test times how long you take to read a passage and divides its words by the minutes: your words a minute, or wpm.
A good test also checks you understood it. Speed without understanding is skimming.
What's a good reading speed?
A 2019 review by Marc Brysbaert of 190 studies with 18,573 adults found these speeds for English:
- Average
- 238 wpm
- Most adults
- 175 to 300 wpm
- Average
- 260 wpm
- Most adults
- 200 to 320 wpm
- Average
- 183 wpm
- Most adults
- –
Your result is compared with the range for the kind of text you read. Anything inside it is normal.
Can you read 1,000 words a minute?
Not with full understanding. A 2016 review of speed reading by Rayner and colleagues explains why rates of more than 1,000 words a minute are impossible without a severe loss of understanding: the eyes have to stop on words, and each stop takes time.
Skimming runs at about 450 words a minute and scanning at about 650. The test flags anything over 700 and asks you to take it again.
The quickest way to read more books is more minutes, not faster eyes. My books per year calculator shows what a few more minutes a day add up to.
The passages
Each passage is the opening of a public domain book, from Project Gutenberg:
- Fiction – "A Scandal in Bohemia", Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes short story, from 1891
- Nonfiction – How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett, from 1908
Pick the kind you read most, since people read fiction a little faster.
How to use the reading speed test
Your speed stays in this browser. The reading time calculator and the books per year calculator use it from then on.
Who is the reading speed test for?
It's for anyone making time to read:
- Reading time calculator – anyone timing a book, a chapter or an article
- How many books can I read in a year – readers setting a yearly goal
- Reading speed test – anyone who wants their own speed
- Readability checker – writers checking how easy a text is to read
More tools like these are on my free tools page.
Reading Speed Test FAQs
Questions about reading time and speed? Here's what to know.
A reading speed test times how long you take to read a passage and gives your speed in words a minute.
This one also asks three questions, to check you read it rather than skimmed it.
Most adults read fiction at 200 to 320 words a minute and nonfiction at 175 to 300, according to a 2019 review of 190 studies.
The averages are 260 and 238.
To tell reading from skimming.
With fewer than 2 of 3 right, the test doesn't save the speed.
Not with full understanding.
A 2016 review of speed reading found that rates over 1,000 words a minute are impossible without a severe loss of understanding.
About 2 minutes to read a passage of about 400 words, and a few seconds for the three questions.
Yes, the reading speed test is free, with no sign-up.
It runs in your browser, and your speed stays there.
I did. I'm Navid Moazzez, and I made the reading speed test as one of my free tools on navid.me.
More about me.
The reading time calculator uses your speed to time any book or text, and how many books can I read in a year turns it into books.
See all my free tools.
Navid Moazzez
AI business strategist & AI OS builder
Navid Moazzez helps creators and founders master AI and build their own AI Operating System (AI OS) to automate their business and life.
Navid.me is reader-supported. When you buy through links on this site, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
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