Can you really read 900 words per minute?

The honest answer is that you can make words pass at 900 per minute, and easy, familiar text may feel readable at that pace. Reading at that speed and still understanding what the text means is not supported by the research. The average adult reads non-fiction silently at 238 words per minute ¹, so 900 is about 3.8 times that rate ².

At 900 words per minute, each word gets about 67 milliseconds

Reading works through fixations, the short stops where the eyes take in text. A rough estimate puts fixations in reading at around 200 to 250 milliseconds, or four to five per second ³. At 900 words per minute, each word gets about 67 milliseconds ⁴. That is roughly a quarter to a third of one typical fixation.

This is a rough limit, not an exact one. The calculation assumes one word per fixation, which is a simplification, so the per-word figure is not a hard ceiling. It does show why the claim needs more than the eyes to be fast: each stop has to be long enough to take in what the text says.

The research puts the ceiling near 1,000 words per minute, and says speed costs comprehension

Brysbaert's 2019 review of reading rate describes a review of speed reading by Rayner and colleagues, and states that reading rates of more than 1,000 words per minute are impossible without severe loss of text understanding ⁵. Rayner's own 2016 review concludes that claims of reading at super speed with good comprehension are overstated and not in line with what researchers know about how language is processed ⁶.

Nine hundred sits below the 1,000 ceiling, but that does not make it safe. The reviews treat speed and comprehension as trading off, so faster reading generally leaves less of the text understood. Claims of 900 words per minute with full understanding would need evidence of that trade-off being overcome, and the reviews did not find it.

Easy text and skimming are where the claims seem to work

Brysbaert quotes Tinker's 1958 remark that even with easy material, 500 words per minute is very fast reading ⁷. If 500 was already called very fast in that era, 900 is far beyond it.

Rayner's review also separates skimming from comprehension. A reader can skim a page for its headings, names and main claims quickly, and skimming gains do not automatically mean the text was understood. Those are two different tasks, and a demo that shows speed on one does not show understanding of the other.

A 900 words per minute challenge that shows one word at a time tests how fast you can follow a moving display, which is not the same as reading a page with ordinary eye movements. The reviews above are about the second task.

It depends on the text, your purpose and how familiar you are with it

• Familiar, repetitive text such as a novel you already know can feel fast, because you need to take in less of each sentence.
• Dense or unfamiliar text, such as a contract, a research paper or a manual for a new device, slows down a fast reader.
• Your purpose matters. Skimming to find a section is useful. Reading to learn an argument needs a pace where you can state its main point afterwards.

What to measure and do instead

1. Time a page of ordinary non-fiction. Pick a page you have not read, read it at your normal pace, and note the minutes it takes.
2. Count the words and divide. Count the words on the page and divide by the minutes. Compare the result with the 238 words per minute average for adults ¹.
3. Test your understanding. Without looking back, write three sentences stating the main point. If you cannot, the rate for that text is too fast for understanding.
4. Raise the pace in small steps. If you want to read faster, practice on the same kind of text at a slightly higher pace, and check understanding each time. Use skimming to locate information, not to learn an argument.

For the rates people ask about next, see the question on reading speed by grade, the question on average reading speed and the question on the fastest speaking speed. The full comparison of speaking, reading and typing is in the speaking speed guide, which sits within our guide to typing speed. The unit itself is defined in the words per minute glossary entry.