Paste any text or upload a file to get an instant reading time, word count, and complexity score.
Displaying a reading time before an article is one of the smallest changes a publisher can make with one of the largest effects on behaviour. Readers who know what they are committing to are significantly more likely to start and far more likely to finish. It removes the hesitation of the unknown.
The estimate is calculated by counting the total words in your text and dividing by a reading speed in words per minute. The average adult reads at around 238 words per minute for general prose, though this drops considerably for dense technical writing and rises for casual skimming. The speed preset you choose shifts every estimate in the tool at once, including the context breakdown.
Complexity is measured using the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula, which scores text based on average sentence length and average syllables per word. A long sentence full of short words scores easier than a short sentence packed with jargon. The score runs from 0 to 100. Higher means easier. Most web content sits between 50 and 70. Legal and academic writing often falls below 30. Everything is calculated locally in your browser. No text is sent anywhere.
Accurate enough to be genuinely useful, though not a guarantee. The estimate is based on a reading speed of 238 words per minute, which is the most widely cited average for adult readers of general prose in English. In practice, reading speed varies by person, topic familiarity, and text density. The complexity score gives you a signal for when to adjust: if your text scores as complex, real-world reading time will likely be longer than the estimate. Use the slow reader or study preset for technical or specialist content to get a more realistic number.
Because uncertainty is one of the biggest reasons people bounce from long content. A reader who sees a 12-minute article with no time indicator has no way to judge whether to start now or save it. A reader who sees "12 min read" can make a real decision. Research from Medium found that articles displaying a reading time had meaningfully higher completion rates. It is a small piece of information that removes a genuine friction point. For email newsletters, course content, and long-form guides, it also signals that you respect the reader's time.
It measures two things: how long your sentences are on average, and how many syllables your words contain on average. Long sentences and long words push the score down toward complex. Short sentences and common words push it up toward easy. The scale runs from 0 to 100. Most web content sits between 50 and 70. A score above 70 is easy reading for most adults. Below 50 suggests academic or specialist content. Below 30 is the territory of legal documents and research papers. The formula does not understand meaning, so jargon-heavy text with short words can score deceptively easy.
It depends on the goal. For SEO-focused content, longer articles of 1,500 to 2,500 words (roughly 6 to 10 minutes) tend to rank well because they cover topics in depth. For newsletters and social-linked posts, 3 to 5 minutes is a comfortable sweet spot where most readers will reach the end. For landing pages and product copy, shorter is almost always better. The most important thing is matching the length to the reader's intent. Someone searching for a tutorial expects depth. Someone skimming a news roundup does not. Word count is a means, not a goal.
No. Everything happens locally in your browser. The word count, complexity calculation, and reading time estimate are all computed in JavaScript on your device the moment you paste or upload text. Nothing is sent to a server, stored in a database, or logged anywhere. You can paste a draft, a confidential document, or client work without any concern. Closing the tab clears everything entirely.
Because speaking and reading use completely different mechanisms. The average speaker delivers around 130 words per minute, which is roughly half the average silent reading speed. When you read silently, your brain processes words in chunks and skips over familiar patterns. When you speak, every word has to be physically articulated at a pace your listeners can follow. This matters a lot for anyone turning written content into audio. A 1,000-word article that reads in 4 minutes will run to about 8 minutes as a podcast segment or voiceover script. Plan accordingly.