Benchmarks
Average Reading Speed by Genre
This benchmark page shows realistic words-per-minute ranges by content type. Use it as a planning baseline, then use the reading speed tester to replace averages with your own measured speed.
Genre-specific reading speed pages
Need a focused benchmark? Open a dedicated page for your exact content type.
Literary Fiction (240 wpm)Fantasy (220 wpm)Science Fiction (225 wpm)Mystery / Thriller (260 wpm)Romance (270 wpm)Web Fiction / Light Novel (290 wpm)News Articles (270 wpm)Essays & Opinion (230 wpm)Biography / Memoir (250 wpm)Popular Science (220 wpm)Humanities (Academic) (150 wpm)Social Sciences (130 wpm)STEM Papers (100 wpm)Business Reports (190 wpm)Legal Documents (70 wpm)Technical Documentation (80 wpm)
Methodology note
These values are practical benchmark defaults, not guarantees. Reading speed changes with fatigue, prior knowledge, text complexity, and reading purpose (skimming vs deep comprehension).
Sources used in our benchmark model include Carver (1990), Rayner et al. (2016), and Nielsen Norman Group readability research.