Reading Speed Test

In short Average adult reading speed is roughly 200 to 300 words per minute for ordinary prose. Careful technical reading runs 100 to 200, and skimming for a single fact reaches 400 to 700 with comprehension falling as you go. That last clause is the whole story of speed reading: the claims above 1000 words a minute describe skimming, not reading, and every controlled study that has measured comprehension alongside speed has found the two trade against each other beyond a fairly modest limit. The eye can only take in a few words per fixation, and no technique changes that. This measures speed only and deliberately does not claim to test comprehension, which is why pasting your own text matters more than the supplied passage. Your speed on a familiar subject in your first language is not your speed on a dense contract or a paper in an unfamiliar field, and the difference between those two figures is far more useful than either alone. The practical use is not chasing a bigger number but knowing your real rate, because that is what turns "a 40-page report" into a defensible estimate of how long the afternoon will actually take.