What is a normal words per minute?
It depends on what you are doing. Silent reading is fastest, speech sits in the middle, and typing is slowest. These are the measured or published rates, each from the source linked in the last column.
| Activity | Slow | Average | Fast | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading silently, non-fiction | 175 | 238 | 300 | Brysbaert, 2019 |
| Reading silently, fiction | 200 | 260 | 320 | Brysbaert, 2019 |
| Reading aloud | – | 183 | – | Brysbaert, 2019 |
| Online lecture videos (862) | under 130 | 156 | over 165; fastest 254 | Guo, Kim and Rubin, 2014 |
| Phone conversations (2,438) | 111 | 196 | 291 | Yuan, Liberman and Cieri, 2006 |
| Practice presentations (32,809) | 86 | 111 | 133 | VirtualSpeech |
| Popular TED talks (5) | 154 | 173 | 201 | VirtualSpeech |
| Audiobook narration | – | about 155 | – | ACX |
| Radio news, BBC | – | 168 | – | Rodero, 2012, via Wikipedia |
| Commercial and explainer voiceover | – | 150–160 recommended | – | Descript |
| Podcast and radio hosts | – | 150–160 (estimate) | – | VirtualSpeech |
| Auctioneers | – | about 250 (estimate) | – | VirtualSpeech |
| Fastest talker on record | – | – | 655 | Guinness World Records |
| Typing, computer keyboard | under 26 | 52 | over 78; fastest 120+ | Dhakal et al., 2018 |
| Typing, phone | – | 36 | – | Palin et al., 2019 |
| Court reporter certification (stenotype) | – | 180–225 test speeds | – | NCRA |
All figures in words per minute. Slow and fast are the edges each source reports: for reading, the range where most adults fall; for typing, the slowest and fastest 10%; for lecture videos, the slowest and fastest fifths; for phone calls, the slowest and fastest conversation; for presentations, the middle half. A dash means the source gives no figure. Rows marked "estimate" are guideline numbers, not measurements.
What is the average reading speed?
About 238 words per minute for silent reading of non-fiction and 260 for fiction. Those are the estimates from a meta-analysis of 190 studies with 18,573 adult participants reading English (Brysbaert, 2019; free preprint). Most adults fall between 175 and 300 wpm for non-fiction and between 200 and 320 for fiction. Fiction reads faster mainly because its words are shorter.
Reading aloud averages 183 words per minute, based on 77 studies and 5,965 participants in the same review. That is close to how fast people speak, which is why the reading-aloud test above doubles as a speaking rate test.
- 300 wpm is not average. Brysbaert found the often-quoted 300 wpm is higher than what studies measure across readers; the figure was promoted by eye-movement researchers.
- Speed reading has a ceiling. The review cites Rayner and colleagues (2016), who explained why rates above 1,000 wpm are not possible without a severe loss of understanding.
- Some readers are slower for good reasons. Rates are lower for children, older adults and people reading English as a second language.
- Word length changes the number. The review gives a formula: expected rate = 238 × 4.6 ÷ the text's average word length in letters. The test passage above averages 4.0 letters a word, so an average reader would be expected to read it at about 273 wpm.
To turn a reading speed into time, a 1,000-word article takes about 4 minutes 12 seconds at 238 wpm. The words to minutes converter does the same sum for any length.
What is the average speaking rate?
About 150 to 160 words per minute for planned speech, with conversation often faster and slide presentations often slower. The measured figures:
- Online video: across 862 lecture videos, speaking rates ran from 48 to 254 words per minute, with a mean of 156. The slowest fifth spoke at 130 or less, the middle fifth at 145 to 165, and students engaged more with faster speakers (Guo, Kim and Rubin, 2014).
- Conversation: in 2,438 recorded English phone conversations, words spoken by both people divided by the length of the call averaged 196 per minute, from 111 to 291 per call. Measured only over each person's own turns it was 164 (Yuan, Liberman and Cieri, 2006).
- Presentations: across 32,809 practice presentations on VirtualSpeech's platform, the median was 111 wpm and the middle half spoke at 86 to 133. Talks rated 8 out of 10 or higher had a median of 138 (VirtualSpeech).
- TED talks: five popular talks measured by VirtualSpeech ranged from 154 (Brené Brown) to 201 (Tony Robbins), an average of 173 (VirtualSpeech).
- Audiobooks: Audible's ACX says most narrators record about 9,300 words an hour, about 155 a minute (ACX).
- Radio news: a comparison of news bulletins by Emma Rodero measured the BBC at 168 words per minute (Wikipedia, speech tempo).
- Voiceovers: Descript recommends 150 to 160 for commercial and explainer voiceovers (Descript).
- Podcasts and auctioneers: VirtualSpeech puts radio hosts and podcasters at 150 to 160 and auctioneers at about 250, without a cited measurement (VirtualSpeech).
- The record: Sean Shannon recited Hamlet's 260-word "To be, or not to be" in 23.8 seconds in 1995, 655 words per minute (Guinness World Records).
You will often see "150 wpm, according to the National Center for Voice and Speech." We could not open a primary NCVS source for that number, so it is not in the table.
What is a good typing speed?
About 52 words per minute is average on a computer keyboard. In an online study of 168,000 volunteers who each copied 15 English sentences, the mean was 51.56 wpm, with a standard deviation of 20.2 (Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson and Oulasvirta, 2018; paper).
- Fast: above about 78 wpm puts you in the fastest 10%. The fastest typists in the study reached 120 wpm or more.
- Slow: below about 26 wpm is the slowest 10%.
- Training helps a little: people who had taken a typing course were on average 5 wpm faster than those who had not. The average uncorrected error rate was 1.17%.
- Phones are slower: a follow-up study of 37,370 volunteers on mobile phones measured 36.2 wpm with 2.3% uncorrected errors; most used both thumbs, which was faster than one thumb or a finger (Palin et al., 2019).
- Court reporters use stenotype machines, not keyboards. The NCRA's Registered Professional Reporter exam dictates at 180 wpm (literary), 200 (jury charge) and 225 (testimony), and each needs 95% accuracy to pass (NCRA).
How many words fit a 60-second launch video?
About 130 to 160 words. At the 150 to 160 wpm Descript recommends for explainer voiceovers, a minute holds 150 to 160 words; a slower, warmer read at 130 wpm holds 130. Launch videos also need a second or two for the opening and the end card, so many scripts land nearer 130 than 160.
The most accurate number is your own voice, or the voice you will use. Run the reading-aloud test above: your result in words per minute is also the number of words that fit 60 seconds at your pace. Then split that budget into beats with the video script template and time the draft with the script timer.
How is words per minute measured?
For reading and speech, researchers count the actual words and divide by the minutes taken. For typing, a "word" is usually any five characters, so long and short words count the same way; that is how the 168,000-person typing study defined it (Dhakal et al., 2018).
Two things move the number. Pauses: the same phone calls give 196 wpm if you divide by the whole call, 236 if you cut out silences and noise, and 164 if you add up each speaker's turns (Yuan, Liberman and Cieri, 2006). And word length: a text full of long technical words reads and speaks slower than its word count suggests, which is why the reading review adjusts for average word length.