At a normal adult pace, a typical 300 page novel takes about 5 to 7 hours, and you can work out any book by dividing its word count by your reading speed in words a minute.
At a Glance
- Word count is a better guide than page count
- We plan on about 275 words for a paperback page, though it varies
- Minutes to read equals words divided by your words per minute
- At 240 words a minute, an 80,000 word book takes about 5 and a half hours
The Formula
There is only one step. Take the number of words in the book and divide it by how many words you read in a minute. The answer is the number of minutes it will take.
Say a book has 80,000 words and you read 240 words a minute. 80,000 divided by 240 is about 333 minutes. That is 5 hours and 33 minutes of reading time.
If you only know the page count, multiply the pages by about 275 words to get a rough word count. That is our planning figure, not a publishing rule, since font and layout change it a lot. A 300 page paperback comes to about 82,500 words. At 240 words a minute, that is close to 5 hours and 45 minutes.
That number is pure reading time. Breaks, rereading and stopping to think will add to it.
Reading Time by Book Length and Speed
Here is the same math done for you. Find your speed across the top and the book length down the side.
| Book length | Roughly | 200 wpm | 250 wpm | 300 wpm | 400 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,000 words | A short novel | 4 hr 10 min | 3 hr 20 min | 2 hr 47 min | 2 hr 5 min |
| 80,000 words | A typical novel | 6 hr 40 min | 5 hr 20 min | 4 hr 27 min | 3 hr 20 min |
| 100,000 words | A long novel | 8 hr 20 min | 6 hr 40 min | 5 hr 33 min | 4 hr 10 min |
| 150,000 words | A very long book | 12 hr 30 min | 10 hr 0 min | 8 hr 20 min | 6 hr 15 min |
The lengths in the left column are worked examples, not rules for any genre. Find the real count for your book with the tips below.
How to Find Your Reading Speed
The table only helps if you know your own number. A large 2019 review of 190 reading studies put the average adult at about 238 words a minute for nonfiction and about 260 for fiction (Brysbaert 2019). More on that in what is the average reading speed. Your number could be quite a bit higher or lower.
The quickest way to find out is the free reading speed test. It times you on a short passage and then checks that you understood it. Use the effective score in the formula, because that is your speed with real understanding.
Your speed also changes with the book. A thriller in plain language reads faster than a classic with long sentences and old words. If a book feels slow, it probably is, and that is fine.
How to Find a Book's Word Count
Publishers do not usually print the word count. Here are a few ways to find it.
- Ebook readers often show time left in a chapter or book, which is the same math done for you.
- Search online for the title plus
word count
. Fans and reading sites have counted many popular books. - Use the page estimate. Pages times 275 is close enough for planning.
- Open it in Rot Reader. When you open an EPUB, PDF, Word or text file in Rot Reader, it shows the word count and a time left estimate based on the speed you set. The same goes for the free public domain books on its shelf.
How Long If You Read a Little Each Day?
Most people do not read a book in one sitting. They read a bit at a time. Here is how that plays out at 240 words a minute for an 80,000 word book.
- 10 minutes a day is 2,400 words. You finish in about 34 days.
- 20 minutes a day is 4,800 words. You finish in about 17 days.
- 30 minutes a day is 7,200 words. You finish in about 12 days.
- An hour a day is 14,400 words. You finish in about 6 days.
Twenty minutes a day is close to two books a month. That beats a burst of reading once a year.
Can You Finish Books Faster?
Yes, within limits. The biggest gains for most people come from fewer distractions and less rereading, not from tricks. A steady pace helps a lot, and a one word at a time reader like Rot Reader is one way to set one. For the honest version of what works, read how to read faster.
Going from 240 to 300 words a minute cuts a 5 and a half hour book down to about 4 and a half hours. That is a real saving without giving up the story. Pushing much past that tends to cost you detail. A 2016 review found it unlikely that readers can double or triple their speed and still understand as well (Rayner and team, 2016). And a 2017 study of one word at a time apps found they did not help comprehension (American Journal of Psychology). That is covered in is speed reading real.
Questions
How long does it take to read a 300 page book?
About 5 to 7 hours at 200 to 275 words a minute, using our planning figure of 275 words a page. That makes a 300 page paperback about 82,500 words, which takes about 5 hours and 45 minutes at 240 words a minute.
How many words are on a page?
It varies with font, page size and how much dialogue there is. We plan on about 275 words for a typical paperback page, which is close enough to estimate reading time.
How long does it take to read 100 pages?
About 1 hour 40 minutes to 2 hours 20 minutes at 200 to 275 words a minute, using our planning figure of about 27,500 words for 100 pages.
How many books can I read in a year?
At 20 minutes a day and an average speed, you can finish about two typical novels a month, or roughly 20 or more a year.
How do I estimate reading time for any book?
Divide the word count by your reading speed in words a minute. If you only know the page count, multiply pages by about 275 to estimate the words first.
Sources
- Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109. doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047
- Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E. J., Potter, M. C. and Treiman, R. (January 14, 2016). So Much to Read, So Little Time. How Do We Read, and Can Speed Reading Help? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(1), 4 to 34. doi.org/10.1177/1529100615623267
- Acklin, D. and Papesh, M. H. (July 2017). Modern Speed Reading Apps Do Not Foster Reading Comprehension. The American Journal of Psychology, 130(2), 183 to 199. doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.2.0183
All sources were opened and checked on October 17, 2026. Photos are from Wikimedia Commons under the licenses named in each caption.
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