Reading Speed Test: What Is Your Words Per Minute (WPM)?

Curious how fast you read? The test above gives you a number in about 2 minutes: your words per minute, how much you took in, and how that compares with the research average. It works as a speed reading test too. Below: what counts as a good speed, how to test yourself fairly, and what actually helps you read faster.

What is a good reading speed?

For an adult reading non-fiction silently, 238 words per minute is average and 175 to 300 wpm is the normal range, according to Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review of 190 studies with 18,573 participants. Fiction goes a little faster, about 260 wpm. Anything inside the range is a perfectly good reading speed.

The book times assume 250 words a page, so 75,000 words. Brysbaert found that fiction is faster mostly because it uses shorter words. Reading out loud is slower because you say every word: his 183 wpm comes from 77 studies with 5,965 participants. For the length of a talk or a script, use the words to minutes calculator.

Your result card puts you in one of four bands, the same cut-offs as this table:

So is 300 wpm good? Yes. It's the top of the normal range for non-fiction and clearly above average: a 300-page book in about 4 hours 10 minutes. But the old line that "the average adult reads 300 wpm" is too high. As the British Psychological Society's summary of the review puts it, the 238 wpm average is well below that popular figure.

Expect a lower score on a hard text, in a second language or when you're tired. That says nothing about how smart you are.

How to test your reading speed accurately

Read a passage of known length at your normal pace, time yourself, and divide the words by the minutes. The test above does the counting and timing for you, then checks what you took in. For an honest score, read the way you usually do, and take the test more than once.

1. Find a quiet spot

   Phone face down, other tabs closed. Two quiet minutes is all you need.

2. Read at your normal pace

   Don't race, and don't jump back to "win". Press I'm done after the last line.

3. Answer the 5 questions honestly

   The text is hidden while you answer, so go with what you remember.

4. Take it two or three times

   Each retake gives a new passage, and the card shows your average, which says more than one score.

Test with your own book

A real book scores you on what you actually read. Pick Own book in the test:

1. Count the words in 3 full lines. Divide by 3 for your words per line.
2. Count the lines on a full page. Words per line × lines is your words per page. The tool's helper does the sum.
3. Read for about 5 minutes. Use the tool's timer and note the pages you read (halves are fine).
4. Let the tool divide. Words per page × pages ÷ minutes is your words per minute.

Reading speed vs comprehension: your effective reading speed

Speed only matters if you understood what you read. That's why the test asks 5 questions and shows an effective reading speed next to your words per minute. A fast score with half the answers wrong isn't faster reading. It's skimming.

Skimming isn't bad: it's right for scanning the news, wrong for studying or a lease.

Be fair to the number, too. Five multiple-choice questions are a rough check, not a deep test of understanding: one lucky guess moves you 20 points.

Reading speed by age: children vs adults

Children are measured differently from adults: out loud, in words correct per minute (WCPM), against grade-level norms. A typical reader goes from about 60 WCPM at the end of first grade to about 146 by the end of fifth grade. Adults read aloud at about 183 wpm.

The children's figures come from the 2017 oral reading fluency norms by Jan Hasbrouck and Gerald Tindal at the University of Oregon. This test is made for teens and adults. If you're wondering about your child's reading, their teacher or a reading specialist is the right place to start.

How we calculate your reading speed (and why tests disagree)

Words per minute is the words in the passage divided by your reading time in minutes. The timer runs from Start reading to I'm done, in milliseconds, and the result is rounded: 400 words in 1 minute 31 seconds is 264 wpm. Comprehension is the share of the 5 questions you got right, and effective reading speed is your words per minute times that share. We compare you with the averages from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies and 18,573 participants: 238 wpm for silent non-fiction, 260 for fiction and 183 out loud. The 175 to 300 wpm non-fiction range is his. The fiction range is that range moved up by the 22 wpm gap between the averages, the out-loud range is scaled to 183, and the very fast band starts at 1.5 times the top of the range. Those three are our choices. A test under 10 seconds, over 1,200 wpm or over 15 minutes gets no score.

1. Words in the passage

   Split on spaces: a hyphenated word or a number is one word, the title doesn't count.

2. Your reading time

   From Start reading to I'm done.

3. Words per minute

   Words ÷ minutes, rounded.

4. Effective reading speed

   Words per minute × the share of right answers.

The passages

Every passage was written for this test, on everyday topics like bees, bread and rivers, so you need no background knowledge. There are 18 short ones of 351 to 435 words (the Standard ones exactly 400), each with 5 questions and at least one about the main idea, so skimming shows. By the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (with a rule-of-thumb syllable count, so read them as estimates), Easy is about grade 5 to 6, Standard 8 to 10 and Challenging 13 or higher.

Why reading speed tests disagree

Sites use different texts, some ask no questions, and some invent their own "effective" formula. Many still quote 250 or 300 wpm as the average, figures Brysbaert's review found too high. Some show a percentile ("faster than 87% of readers") without saying which readers. We don't: there's no reliable dataset behind it.

Can you really learn to speed read?

You can get somewhat faster, but doubling or tripling your speed without understanding less is unlikely. That's the conclusion of a 2016 review by Keith Rayner and colleagues: going from about 250 to 500 or 750 wpm while understanding the text as well is not something the evidence supports.

The reason is where reading time goes. Moving your eyes takes only a small part of it. The slow part is recognizing words and building them into meaning, and no eye trick speeds that up. Going back over a line, which speed reading courses tell you to stop, tends to help you understand.

So most speed reading training teaches skimming: useful, but a different skill. Check it yourself: take the test today, read daily for a month, and retake it on the same level. Compare your effective reading speed, not just the big number.

How to read faster without losing comprehension

Read more, and read every day. That's the tip with research behind it: the Rayner review points to reading practice and a bigger vocabulary, not eye tricks. The other four tips below help you read at your best natural pace instead of below it, without giving up what you understand.

• Read daily. Even 20 minutes. Practice is what the Rayner review points to.
• Grow your vocabulary. Every word you know instantly is one you don't stumble on.
• Remove distractions. Phone in another room, one tab open.
• Read with a purpose. Decide first: skim for one fact, or read to understand.
• Make the text easy on your eyes. A bigger font and good light help; the test lets you change the size and switch to a dark view.

Small daily blocks add up. At the average 238 wpm, 20 minutes a day is:

For one specific book, the reading time calculator works it out from the pages and your speed. If 20 minutes feels long, read in short focused blocks with a Pomodoro timer.

Turn reading into a daily habit

The readers who get faster are the ones who read most days. Give reading a fixed spot, like 20 minutes before bed, and tie it to something you already do: "After I brush my teeth, I read." That's habit stacking, from our Atomic Habits cheat sheet, and reading is on our list of good habits to build.

One way to do it is Greatr: add reading to your morning or evening routine. Every habit earns XP, and Greatr counts every day you show up, so your streak grows with it.

Your next step: take the test now and write down your effective reading speed. Then read 20 minutes a day and take it again in 30 days, on the same level.