Reading Time Estimation: How Apps Calculate Minutes to Read

The Reading Speed Benchmark

The most widely cited figure for adult reading speed is 200–250 words per minute (WPM) for average readers. Silent reading for comprehension (not skimming) is typically 200–300 WPM. Medium and most blogging platforms use 200–265 WPM as their baseline.

For technical content with code blocks, the effective WPM is lower — readers spend more time on code than prose. Many developer-focused platforms use 150–200 WPM and add extra seconds per code block.

Calculating Reading Time in JavaScript

function readingTime(text, wpm = 225) {
  const words = text.trim().split(/\s+/).length;
  const minutes = Math.ceil(words / wpm);
  return { words, minutes };
}

// For HTML content — strip tags first
function readingTimeFromHtml(html, wpm = 225) {
  const text = html.replace(/<[^>]+>/g, " ").replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
  return readingTime(text, wpm);
}

readingTime("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.");
// { words: 9, minutes: 1 }

Character Count and Byte Length

const text = "Hello, 世界";

text.length           // 9 — UTF-16 code units (JS string length)
[...text].length      // 9 — Unicode code points (correct for emoji/CJK)
new Blob([text]).size // 13 — UTF-8 bytes (matters for HTTP payloads)

// Emoji have length 2 in JS strings (surrogate pairs)
"😀".length     // 2
[..."😀"].length // 1

Word Count and SEO

Google has stated word count is not a direct ranking factor, but in practice longer, comprehensive content tends to rank better for informational queries because:

More words means more keyword coverage and semantic depth
Long-form content earns more backlinks and social shares
Higher dwell time (time on page) correlates with better rankings

Research by Backlinko found the average first-page Google result contains ~1,447 words. For competitive informational queries, 1,500–3,000 words is a reasonable target. But thin content that hits a word count with filler is worse than shorter, denser content.

Flesch Reading Ease

The Flesch Reading Ease score measures how difficult text is to read:

score = 206.835 - 1.015 * (words/sentences) - 84.6 * (syllables/words)

// Score interpretation:
// 90–100: Very easy (5th grade)
// 60–70:  Standard (8th–9th grade) — target for most web content
// 30–50:  Difficult (college)
// 0–30:   Very difficult (professional/technical)

Count Words and Estimate Reading Time

Use ToolsVito's Word & Character Counter for instant word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count, and reading time estimates.