Listening time calculator
Paste a text or type a word count. See how long it takes to read with your eyes and to listen to at different speeds.
Typing a number here overrides the text box.
Everything is counted in your browser. Your text is not sent anywhere.
Listen instead of reading
TabListen will read any article aloud in Chrome, or give you the gist in 1, 3 or 5 minutes. Join the waitlist to hear when it launches.
How the times are calculated
The calculator divides the number of words by an average pace and rounds the result to the nearest second.
- Reading silently: 238 words per minute. This is the average for adults reading English non-fiction, from a review of 190 studies by Marc Brysbaert (Journal of Memory and Language, 2019).
- Listening at 1x: 150 words per minute. This is a common pace for audiobook narration and radio, which usually falls between 150 and 160 words per minute (VirtualSpeech). Faster speeds simply multiply it: 1.5x is 225 words per minute.
Your own times will vary. Dense or technical text takes longer, light text goes faster, and voices differ in pace.
Listening vs reading
At 1x, listening is slower than reading with your eyes. At around 1.6x the two are about even, and at 2x listening is faster. The real win is when you can listen: on a walk, while cooking or with tired eyes, time you could not have spent reading at all.
Quick reference
| Words | Reading | Listening 1x | Listening 1.5x |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | 2 min 6 s | 3 min 20 s | 2 min 13 s |
| 1,000 | 4 min 12 s | 6 min 40 s | 4 min 27 s |
| 2,500 | 10 min 30 s | 16 min 40 s | 11 min 7 s |
| 5,000 | 21 min 1 s | 33 min 20 s | 22 min 13 s |
Want to hear a text right now? Paste it into Read aloud online.