How long does it take to read a book?
Book and PDF reading time calculator
Answer: at 300 words per minute and about 300 words a page, a 200-page book takes about 3.3 hours to read. A 300-page book takes about 5 hours, a 400-page book about 6.7 hours, and 100 pages of a book about 1.7 hours.
300 WPM is a working assumption, not “the” average. Published research and our reading speed test use a range: see what the research says about average reading speed, or measure your own speed in about a minute. Pages vary too, so enter your own numbers below.
Estimated reading time
About 3.3 hours
3 hr 20 min: 60,000 words (200 pages × about 300 words) at 300 WPM.
At 30 minutes a day, you’d finish in about 7 days.
| Reading speed | Time |
|---|---|
| 150 WPM | 6.7 hours |
| 300 WPM | 3.3 hours |
| 450 WPM | 2.2 hours |
| 600 WPM | 1.7 hours |
Page density varies with page size, font, spacing and layout, so page-based times are estimates. A word count gives the closest answer.
See the 200-page reading time table (assumes about 500 words a page).
How long does it take to read a PDF?
Choose “PDF, report or dense page” (about 500 words a page) and enter the page count. At 300 WPM, a 20-page PDF takes about 33.3 minutes. You don’t need to upload anything: this calculator runs in your browser and never asks for your file.
To read the PDF itself, SwiftRead can import a PDF up to 25 MB. All features included free. A few have daily allowances.
Next steps
Measure your real WPM
The reading speed test takes about a minute. Enter your result as a custom speed above for a closer estimate.
Take the reading speed testRead the book or PDF in SwiftRead
SwiftRead opens PDFs, ePubs and webpages, on the web or on a phone or tablet. Read up to 3X faster in Focus, Flow or Spotlight mode, with optional text-to-speech in all three. All features included free. A few have daily allowances.
Try SwiftReadRelated
- Reading time by number of pages (dense pages of about 500 words)
- Reading speed test
- Everything You Need to Know About Average Reading Speed
- Book summaries, if you want a book’s key ideas before you start
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read a 200-page book?
About 3.3 hours at 300 WPM, if a page has about 300 words. At 150 WPM it takes about 6.7 hours; at 450 WPM, about 2.2 hours; and at 600 WPM, about 1.7 hours.
How long does it take to read a 300-page book?
About 5 hours at 300 WPM, if a page has about 300 words. At 150 WPM it takes about 10 hours; at 450 WPM, about 3.3 hours; and at 600 WPM, about 2.5 hours.
How long does it take to read a 400-page book?
About 6.7 hours at 300 WPM, if a page has about 300 words. At 150 WPM it takes about 13.3 hours; at 450 WPM, about 4.4 hours; and at 600 WPM, about 3.3 hours.
How long does it take to read 100 pages of a book?
About 1.7 hours at 300 WPM, if a page has about 300 words. Dense pages of about 500 words take longer: about 2.8 hours at the same speed, as on the 100-page reading time table.
How many words are on a page?
It depends on the page size, font, spacing and layout. This calculator uses about 300 words for a book page and about 500 for a dense, single-spaced page, PDF or report. If you know the word count, enter it instead; it is used in place of the page count.
How long does it take to read a PDF?
Enter the page count and choose “PDF, report or dense page.” At 300 WPM, a 20-page PDF with about 500 words a page takes about 33.3 minutes. Nothing is uploaded: the calculator runs in your browser.
What reading speed should I use?
Your own, if you know it. This calculator starts at 300 WPM as a working assumption. A 2019 review of 190 studies (Brysbaert) reports about 238 WPM for English non-fiction and 260 WPM for fiction among native-speaking adults; see Everything You Need to Know About Average Reading Speed. You can measure your reading speed in about a minute and enter it as a custom speed.