Reading Time Calculator

225 words per minute for general prose. Technical content with code is closer to 150, so round up for developer documentation.

It sets expectations, which reduces bounces on long posts. It is not a ranking factor, but engagement effects are real.

Not at prose speed. If a post is a third code, add roughly 50% to the estimate.

As long as the answer needs. A 4-minute post that fully answers the question beats a padded 12-minute one.

Between 200 and 265 words per minute. Medium famously uses 265, which flatters long posts. 225 is closer to measured adult silent reading speed for non-technical prose.

Not directly. It affects whether people start reading, which affects engagement, which affects everything downstream.

Round up and never show zero. A 40-second read should say 1 min, not under a minute, which reads as filler.

Add about 10 seconds per image and count code at roughly half prose speed. A tutorial that is a third code needs about 50% more time than the word count suggests.