The first thing a speed reading app asks you is a number: words per minute. Most people pick one at random, or push the slider as far as it goes to see what happens.
There’s a better way to choose. This post covers how fast people actually read, where to start, how to tell you’ve gone too fast, and why the right number changes with what you’re reading.
How fast do people read?
Slower than you might think. The best estimate comes from a 2019 review by psychologist Marc Brysbaert, who combined 190 studies of adults reading silently in English. The averages:
- Non-fiction: about 238 words per minute.
- Fiction: about 260 words per minute.
Most adults fall between about 175 and 300 wpm for non-fiction, and between about 200 and 320 for fiction. Fiction is faster mainly because its words are shorter.
The figure of 300 wpm you’ll often see quoted as “average” turns out to be an overestimate. If 250 feels like your natural pace, you’re in good company.
Where to start
Start close to your normal speed, not far above it. If you don’t know yours, 250 wpm is a sensible first try.
That may sound disappointing for a speed reading app. But reading one word or phrase at a time in a fixed spot is a different experience from reading a page, and it takes a few sessions to get used to. Starting where you already read comfortably lets you learn the format first, then the speed.
How to go faster without losing the thread
Raise the speed in small steps, about 25 wpm at a time, and only once the current speed feels easy.
A simple check after each step: pause at the end of a paragraph and say in one sentence what it was about. If you can, the speed is working. If you can’t, step back down. Being able to recall the gist is the point; going faster is just the means.
Signs you’ve gone too fast:
- You reach the end of a paragraph and realize you don’t know what it said.
- You keep wanting to go back a sentence.
- Names, numbers or new terms slip past before they register.
- It starts to feel like effort instead of reading.
None of these means you’ve failed. It means that text, at that speed, is past your comfortable pace today.
The right speed depends on the text
There’s no single best speed, because texts aren’t equally hard.
- Light reading such as news, newsletters and familiar topics can go faster. Missing a detail costs little.
- Fiction usually sits a little above your non-fiction speed, as the research suggests.
- Dense or technical text, such as reports, study material and anything with numbers, deserves your normal speed or slower.
- Anything you must remember precisely, like a contract or instructions, is better read on the page.
So expect to change the number as you go. A good speed reading app makes that one swipe, not a trip to the settings.
Why faster isn’t always better
Reading research is consistent on one point: as speed goes up, understanding goes down. There’s no technique that lets you read dense text at several times your normal speed and keep everything. We went through the studies in Do Speed Reading Apps Work?.
Speed reading apps also take away something you normally rely on: looking back. On a page, your eyes jump back to re-read a word more often than you notice. In a speed reading app, once a word has gone, it’s gone, unless you stop.
That’s why the goal isn’t the highest number you can stand. It’s the fastest speed at which you still follow the text.
Words, phrases or sentences
The speed you choose interacts with how much text you see at once.
- One word at a time is the classic format. It keeps your eyes completely still, but every word gets the same short moment, and meaning has to be put back together in your head.
- Short phrases show a few words that belong together, such as “in the morning” or “after the meeting”. The idea is to keep more of the meaning together at the same speed.
- Short sentences show a whole small idea at once. They’re slower to scan but closest to normal reading.
If one word at a time feels tiring, try phrases at the same speed before you slow down.
How Flincth Speed Reader handles it
Flincth Speed Reader, coming soon to iPhone and iPad, is built around choosing a pace that still lets you understand:
- You set the words per minute, and swipe up or down to change it while you read. Nothing pushes you to go faster.
- Word, phrase and sentence modes let you change how much you see at once.
- It eases in. Each time you start or resume, the pace begins a little slower and rises to your speed over the first few seconds.
- It slows where text does. Commas, the ends of sentences and paragraphs get short pauses, and long words get a little more time.
- You can look back. Pause to see the whole paragraph with your place marked, and tap any sentence to carry on from there.
The free plan covers everyday reading speeds; Pro unlocks higher speeds, along with finer control over pauses.
The short answer
Start at about your normal speed, around 250 wpm if you don’t know it. Raise it in small steps while you can still say what each paragraph was about. Go faster for light text and slower for dense text. And when something matters, slow down.
Sources
- Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047.
- Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E. J., Potter, M. C., & Treiman, R. (2016). So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(1), 4–34.
- Schotter, E. R., Tran, R., & Rayner, K. (2014). Don’t believe what you read (only once): Comprehension is supported by regressions during reading. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1218–1226.