How long does it take to read?

There is no single reading speed, so the tool gives you a range rather than a false precision:

• 225 words per minute is the common average for silent reading of general prose. Technical or unfamiliar material is slower.
• 150 words per minute is a careful read — the pace of somebody reading a contract, or of a proofreader.
• 130 words per minute is a calm speaking pace. A five-minute talk is roughly 650 words.

• A newsletter or a blog post. “Three-minute read” is a promise; this tells you whether you are keeping it.
• A talk or a podcast script. The speaking number is the one that matters — read aloud, timed, once, before you commit.
• An audiobook or a voice-over. Multiply the speaking time by the number of takes you expect.
• A submission with a time limit. Readings at festivals often cap at eight minutes.

The calculation is a division: words ÷ words-per-minute. There is no API call, no analytics of the text, and the only stored copy is one localStorage key so a reload does not lose what you pasted. “Clear” removes it. The word counter does the same job with character and paragraph counts; the Markdown preview renders a draft without uploading it either.