Reading plan calculator

From a deadline to a daily number

"Finish by Friday" is not something you can do on a Tuesday evening. A plan turns it into a number you can check: pages (or minutes) per reading day. This calculator takes the pages left, the days you will actually read between today and the deadline, and your reading speed, and divides. It also shows where you should be at the end of each week, so you notice a slip while there is still time, and it works the other way round: tell it how many minutes a day you can give, and it names the date you will finish.

How the numbers are worked out

Pages left = total pages − pages already read. Reading days = the days from the start date to the deadline, both included, that fall on the weekdays you choose (every day, every day but Sunday, weekdays only or weekends only). Pages per day = pages left ÷ reading days. Minutes per page = words per page ÷ words per minute, so minutes per day = pages per day × words per page ÷ words per minute. In the other mode, pages per day = minutes per day ÷ minutes per page, the reading days needed are pages left ÷ pages per day rounded up, and the finish date is that many reading days from the start.

Reading speed comes from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review and meta-analysis of reading-rate research (Journal of Memory and Language), which pooled 190 studies of adults reading silently in English and found an average of 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction. For reading aloud (77 studies, 5,965 participants) the average was 183. The paper points out that these averages are lower than the figures often quoted in popular writing. They are averages of people, not a promise about you: the custom option lets you enter your own speed, which you can find by timing a few pages.

A worked example

Say a 320-page novel has about 275 words a page (an example; count a few pages of your own copy), you read at the fiction average of 260 words per minute, and you want to finish in the four weeks from Monday, November 2 to Sunday, November 29, 2026, skipping Sundays. A page takes 1.06 minutes, so the whole book is about 5 h 38 min of reading. Four weeks without Sundays leave 24 reading days, so you need 13.3 pages a day, or about 14 minutes. With no rest days it would be 11.4 pages over 28 days; reading on weekdays only, 16.0 pages over 20 days, which shows how much a rest day costs when the deadline is fixed.

In the other mode, with 20 minutes a day, six days a week, you read 18.9 pages a day, need 17 reading days and finish on November 20, 2026 (19 calendar days from the start).

Limits of the estimate

Words per page is the weakest number. No standard exists: it depends on the trim size, the type, the margins and the line spacing, and the figures you see in publishing blogs range widely and cannot be traced to a reliable source. Count the words on three typical pages of your book and take the average (a word processor's count helps), or use the book's total word count if the publisher gives one and divide it by the page count. Images, tables and short chapter openings all pull the real average down.

The speed figures are for ordinary silent reading of a typical text. Reading a dense textbook while taking notes, working through unfamiliar vocabulary or reading in a second language is slower, and tired readers slow down at the end of the day. For assigned reading, time one real page of the assignment and use the custom speed. Finally, the plan assumes you read the same amount on every reading day; if you will catch up on a weekend, treat the weekly checkpoints, not the daily figure, as the goal.

How many pages a day do I need to read to finish a book in a month?

Divide the pages by the number of days you will really read. A 320-page book over 30 days is about 10.7 pages a day; if you skip Sundays and have 26 reading days, it is 12.3. The calculator does this for any dates and rest days and adds the minutes.

How fast does the average person read?

In Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis, adults reading silently in English averaged 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, and 183 when reading aloud. Individuals differ a lot and children, second-language readers and people reading difficult material are slower.

How many words are on a page?

It depends on the book. There is no reliable standard figure, so the value in the form is just an example. Count the words on a few full pages of your copy and average them. A textbook page with figures, a poetry collection and a paperback novel will give very different numbers.

Does it make sense to schedule rest days?

If you know there are days you will not read, leave them out: the daily target on the days you do read rises, but the plan stays honest. Choosing "every day" and then missing three days is the most common way a reading plan fails.

Can I use it for assigned reading or a textbook?

Yes, with care. The default speeds are for ordinary reading, not for studying. Time yourself on one page of the actual assignment, including note-taking, and pick "Custom" in the speed list to enter that speed in words per minute.

What if I fall behind?

Change the pages already read to your current page, keep the deadline, and recalculate: the daily number rises by exactly what you missed, spread over the days left. The weekly checkpoints show how far behind you are at a glance.

Sources, checked October 27, 2026: M. Brysbaert, "How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate", Journal of Memory and Language 109, 2019, article 104047. No reliable independent standard exists for words per page, so the figure in the form is an example. Related: the reading time calculator, word count calculator, date calculator, countdown calculator and readability calculator. How we check our calculators.