Reading Time Calculator
Estimate content consumption time for readers and speakers
Introduction
Before someone gets drawn in by an article’s contents, they have to make a snap decision on whether to invest their time into reading it – and a label saying “8 min read” serves as a convenient summary for how much time they’ll have to spend to get through an article, making it easier to plan their time. A Reading Time Calculator helps estimate how long it will take to read a certain article or text, based on how long it is, and how many words per minute one can read
Using a reading time calculator helps bloggers and publishers give a convenient summary for the time needed to read their article, content planners estimating how much substance an article might contain based on their word count, and writers getting an idea of whether they’ve written too little or too much for a given topic.
This tool can prove to be helpful for bloggers or website owners adding reading time labels to their articles, content marketers planning how long their pieces should be scheduled to appear, and writers estimating how much of their draft they’ve written in terms of time needed to get through it.
What Is a Reading Time Calculator?
A Reading Time Calculator is a tool that helps estimate how long it would take to read a given text by calculating the total word count and assuming an average speed of reading.
It takes in the word count and uses a rough approximation of words per minute to give an estimated number of minutes one would need to read the text, which is then sometimes converted into a label saying something like “X min read”. While the calculation itself isn’t particularly complex, being able to have an estimated figure for how long someone would need to spend reading something without having to manually do the math yourself can be useful, especially considering that different types of texts can be read at vastly different speeds.
The tool itself usually involves simply pasting your text in and getting an estimate of how long it would take to read, which can then be used either as the label described above or as a rough estimate of how much text you’ve written in terms of someone’s reading time.
The Benefits of the Reading Time Calculator
As mentioned, a reading time estimate can help someone browsing through a list of articles to read determine roughly how much time they would need to dedicate to finishing an article before committing to reading it
If someone has limited time before an appointment, they might prefer to read an article that takes 7 minutes to read instead of one that takes 15 minutes, even if they were both equally interested in the topics they covered. People are likely to make snap decisions on whether to read an article based on its reading time on sight more often than one might think, and failing to give this information can lead to people wasting time on articles that turned out to be unexpectedly long, or skipping over articles that ended up being surprisingly short.
Meanwhile, having a reading time estimate on an article also serves as a subtle hint for how much information density the article might contain – a 12 minute read usually has much more information than a 2 minute read, so it might be worth looking over if someone wants an in-depth answer on a topic, rather than a brief summary.
Besides allowing one to determine how long an article would take to read, the reading time estimate can prove to be a useful planning tool for writers and content planners
If someone is writing a short guide to something and finds out that it would take 15 minutes to read, it might prompt them to shorten what they’ve written so that it better fits the purpose of a “guide” or reconsider whether it was a good idea to make it in the first place.
Key Features
Instant Time Estimation
A reading time calculator lets you estimate how long it would take to read your text instantly, without having to do any calculations or estimations yourself.
Based on Word Count
The estimation is done based on the word count, so it’s useful not only for estimating how long something takes to read, but also for seeing how long something is in terms of its length.
Standardized Estimate
By using a standardized estimate for how long it takes to read a given word count, one can plan out their content or posts better by having a rough baseline on how long a given text might take to read.
Can Be Used As a Label
By pasting your text into the calculator, you can get an estimated reading time that’s useful as a label for an article or blog post, letting people know how long they might have to spend reading it.
Quick Planning Estimation
Aside from being able to see how long your text takes to read, a reading time calculator can also help you estimate if what you’ve written has the length you were going for.
How to Use Reading Time Calculator
Getting Started
You’ll need to have a piece of text ready to be analyzed. This could be something that has already been published, a draft of something you’re currently working on, or even just some random piece of text you want to test the tool on.
Input Requirements
The tool requires the text to be placed into it, and will then calculate a word count and estimated reading time based on the words it detects.
Processing
This involves little besides simply putting your text into the tool, and letting it count the words.
Understanding Results
The results will then show you the estimated time needed to read the text, which can be used as a label or, if you’re using an unpublished draft, a quick estimation of how much text you’ve written.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A common mistake would be failing to understand that the estimate isn’t an absolute value, as some people can read faster or slower than the assumed standard reading speed, and some texts can be read at vastly different speeds depending on what it is.
Another common mistake is failing to update the reading time estimate when major changes are made to a text, as changes to the text’s length can affect it almost as much as changes to the text itself.
Benefits of Using Reading Time Calculator
Time
Rather than having to calculate a reading time estimate based on word count and an assumed standard reading speed, you can simply put your text into the tool and have it do it for you
especially useful if you have several texts you want to calculate.
Accuracy
You can get a much more accurate estimate if you use a standardized calculation rather than guessing based on how much you think it might be able to read per minute.
Productivity
If you’re a content planner or blogger who needs to plan out posts ahead of time, having a quick way to estimate reading times helps you organize your content better and know how much a post has to say based on how long it takes to read.
Convenience
Rather than having to implement a reading time feature yourself, you can use an online tool to get the estimated reading time for any given text without having to do anything special besides simply putting it into the tool.
Professionalism
Publishers and content sites often make use of reading time estimates as a label for their articles, so being able to provide this information for your own articles adds a professional feel to them and lets readers know how long they might have to spend reading it.
Common Use Cases
Bloggers and Website Owners
Bloggers and website owners can use a reading time calculator to provide an estimate of how long it would take to read their posts, letting their audience know how much they’d have to read before deciding to read it.
Content Marketers
Content marketers can use reading time estimates as a planning tool for how much their scheduled posts would say, based on their desired balance between shorter and longer posts.
Writers and Editors
Writers can use a reading time calculator to see how much of their draft they have written in terms of reading time, while editors can spot articles that have gotten significantly longer than intended to cut back on unnecessarily verbose writing.
Educators
Educators or people writing guides or tutorials can use reading time estimates to let users know how much time they’d need to set aside for reading their guides.
General Content Creators
Anyone who publishes content online can benefit from a reading time calculator, as it provides a useful piece of information that lets one’s audience know how long it would take to get through an article or web page.
Examples
Example 1: Adding Reading Time to a New Blog Post
Problem: Someone writes a new post and wants to add a reading time estimate as a standard label for their articles.
Solution: They can simply paste the post into a reading time calculator to get an estimate of how long it would take to read.
Results: They can then add the reading time as a label to the post, letting their audience know how long they’ll have to spend reading it.
Example 2: Checking Scope During the Writing Process
Problem: A writer is working on a short reference guide but suspects that it has gotten longer than intended and is no longer suitable as a reference.
Solution: They can use a reading time calculator and see that what they’ve written no longer fits a “reference guide” due to taking too long to read.
Results: They can either cut back on unnecessary writing to bring it back down to the expected length or accept that it no longer fits as a “reference guide” and update the title or description accordingly.
Example 3: Comparing Similar Content
Problem: A content team schedules similar posts for a series but wants to keep the writing time for each of them reasonably close together, rather than having one be significantly longer or shorter than the others.
Solution: Each of the posts in the series can be put through a reading time calculator to see how close their length is to one another.
Results: They could find that one of the posts has a reading time significantly lower than the rest, prompting them to reconsider whether it contains enough information to be worth reading alongside the series.
Expert Tips
When updating or editing an article that already has a reading time estimate, be sure to re-calculate the reading time again if there are significant changes. Changes to the text length can have as much impact on the estimate as changes to the text itself, and it can be misleading to readers if you fail to update it.
Reading time estimates are usually based on an average reading speed of a person, so it’s good to keep in mind that these values aren’t set in stone and can vary drastically from person to person, especially depending on whether the text is complex or easy to read.
If you plan to use the tool as more of a planning aid rather than simply a convenience for the audience, you should keep in mind how much of your intended content you’ve written. If you intended to write a short guide but ended up with something that takes a long time to read, it usually means that you’ve gone significantly off-topic, or failed to cut out the parts that weren’t necessary. Likewise, if you intended to write something long but ended up with something that takes almost no time to read, it might prompt you to reconsider whether you’ve actually said enough to justify the length of the post.
For content that involves elements aside from text, such as images or videos, keep in mind that those aren’t taken into account and would require extra time to get through.
You shouldn’t aim for a specific reading time for everything you publish. Some topics are simply shorter or longer on average, and it’s usually best to let the length speak for itself rather than artificially padding or cutting material just to reach a desired length.
Privacy and Security Concerns
A Reading Time Calculator only processes the text to count the words and calculate an estimated reading time, making it much less of a security concern compared to other services that might ask for personal information. It doesn’t require an account to use and only processes the text to count the words, so it doesn’t keep any potentially sensitive information.
For writers who plan to use the tool to check unpublished drafts, it’s safe to assume that a tool that simply counts words and does nothing else won’t keep any potentially sensitive information. For content that involves sensitive or private information prior to publishing, it’s generally good to be careful with any online tools you use, simply due to the potential risk of compromising that information, even if something like a reading time calculator seems completely unrelated.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Mistake: Trying to use the estimate as a solid baseline for everyone who reads it.
The reading time estimate is calculated based on an average, usually of how much someone can read per minute. Some people can read faster or slower than the assumed standard, and more complex texts can take longer to get through, so it’s best to avoid stating it as an absolute value anyone can use.
Mistake: Forgetting to update the reading time estimate after making substantial edits.
If you’ve decided to put a reading time estimate on an article, it’s best to update it if you edit the article substantially afterward. Significant changes to the text length can affect the reading time almost as much as changes to the text itself, and failing to update it can result in misleading information for the audience.
Mistake: Using the value as a baseline for the content’s quality.
A longer reading time doesn’t necessarily mean that the content is better, and a shorter one doesn’t mean it’s worse. Reading time only reflects the length and, to a lesser extent, complexity of the text, and shouldn’t be used as a sole deciding factor for whether the content is worth publishing or not.
Mistake: Failing to account for extra content a text might have aside from the written word.