Book Reading Time by Pages

Book reading time: hours = (pages × words_per_page) ÷ WPM

Most printed books pack 250–300 words per page, which means an average reader at 250 WPM gets through about one page a minute. The math: time = (pages × 275) / WPM. Run a 300-page novel through that and you land near 5 hours at 250 WPM, or roughly 2h30 if you push to 500 WPM. Things change with dense non-fiction. Once you add tables, footnotes and citations, real pace can sag to 100–150 WPM and the estimate doubles. Audiobooks sit at 150–160 WPM because that's just how fast people talk, so bumping playback to 1.5×–2× gets you near silent-reading speed. For a book you'll spread over several days, tack on 10–15% for breaks and the time spent finding where you left off.

Applications

Setting personal reading goals like a Goodreads challenge, working out the pace for a book club, dialing in audiobook playback speed, building a course syllabus around assigned readings, or figuring out how many commutes it'll take to finish a book.

FAQ

Why does my estimate feel off? Word density per page swings a lot. A YA paperback might run 200 words a page while a technical reference hits 400 or more. Pick 3 pages at random, count the words on each, and average them.

Does font size matter? On ebooks it changes what you see, not the total. A bigger font fits fewer words on screen, but the book still has the same word count, so your overall time stays put.

Should I trust "X-minute read" labels? They bank on 200–250 WPM with no skimming. When the material is technical, multiply by 1.5–2×.

How fast is audiobook 2× speed? Take narration at 160 WPM, double it, and you're at 320 WPM. Most listeners follow that comfortably once they've had about a week to adjust.