Speed reading trainer and app, free to start
Free speed reading trainer online
Speed reading is a daily practice, not a trick.
Read more in the same time and still understand it. About 12 minutes a day: a short training session, your own book read at a pace you set, and the words you met in it. Your speed is measured together with comprehension, so the number cannot run ahead of what you actually take in.
Free account, then today’s session opens. The first stage of the program is free in full.
- Browser on PC and Mac
- iPhone and iPad
- Android
- 30
- exercises in the catalog
- 12 min
- one daily session
- 7
- book formats you can upload
- 4
- training directions
Speed reading facts
Average reading speed, and what is realistic
An adult reading English silently covers about 238 words per minute in non-fiction and about 260 in fiction [1]. Regular practice can lift that by tens of percent over months while you still understand what you read; doubling or tripling it always costs comprehension [2].
- 238 wpm
- average silent reading, non-fiction
- 260 wpm
- average silent reading, fiction
- 12 min
- one ReadEater session a day
Averages: Brysbaert, 2019, a review of 190 studies of reading rate [1].
| Speed | What happens | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 350 wpm | Reading. Every word arrives and the sentence holds together. | Study texts, contracts, anything you have to remember |
| 350 to 500 wpm | Reading, at the edge. Small words start to slip, and you fill gaps from context. | Familiar topics, light non-fiction, going back over what you already know |
| Over 500 wpm | Skimming, not reading. Only landmarks are left; the rest is assumed. | Deciding what to read, checking whether a text is relevant |
Your starting point
Free reading speed test: speed and comprehension
Read one short passage at your normal pace, answer four questions about it, and get three numbers: how fast you read, how much you understood, and the speed that counts once comprehension is taken into account. It takes a few minutes and needs no account.
Reading speed test
One passage of 298 words, a timer, four questions.
0:00
Why bread goes stale
Leave a loaf on the kitchen counter for a few days and it turns hard and crumbly. Most people assume the bread has simply dried out, the way a wet towel dries on a line. That explanation sounds sensible, but it is mostly wrong.
Fresh bread is soft because of what happens to starch in the oven. Flour is full of tiny starch granules. During baking they soak up water from the dough, swell and lose their tight, orderly structure. The result is the tender crumb you tear into when the loaf is still warm.
As the bread cools, the starch slowly begins to put itself back in order. Its long molecules line up again and squeeze out some of the water they were holding. The crumb becomes firm and dry to the touch, even though much of that water is still inside the loaf. Food scientists call this process retrogradation, and it is the main reason bread goes stale.
Temperature changes how fast it happens. The process runs quickest at cool temperatures just above freezing, which is why a loaf kept in the refrigerator usually turns stale sooner than one left on the counter. Below freezing, the molecules can hardly move at all, so a frozen loaf stays close to the way it was on the day it went into the freezer.
Heat works in the other direction. Warming a stale slice in a hot oven loosens the starch again for a while, and the bread feels almost fresh. The effect does not last, though: once the slice cools, the starch starts to line up once more, often faster than before.
So the practical advice is simple. Eat bread within a day or two, keep it out of the refrigerator, and freeze what you will not finish.
Your result
- Speed
- —
- Understood
- —
- Effective speed
- —
—
That was too quick to count. Read the whole passage and try again.
How the test works
- Speed is the number of words divided by the minutes you spent reading.
- The passage is 298 words of plain non-fiction, followed by four questions with three answers each. The text is hidden while you answer.
- Effective speed is your speed multiplied by the share of questions you got right, the same rule ReadEater uses for your progress number.
- One passage is a rough reading: a familiar topic speeds you up, and the result moves from day to day. In the app the number is the median of many attempts.
Reading a paper book? Time a page with the Reading Speed tool →
Your result vs the average
Your numbers appear here after the test.
- Average, non-fiction: 238 wpm
- You, effective: —
Average from Brysbaert, 2019 [1].
Where the time goes
How to read faster: first see what slows you down
The eye does not glide along a line. It jumps, stops for a fraction of a second, and now and then slides back to what it has already read. That is where the minutes go — and that is what can be trained.
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Regressions
Ten to fifteen percent of eye movements go backwards [2]. Some of them repair understanding — the rest are just habit.
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A narrow span
One stop takes in roughly 7–9 characters to the right of the fixation [2]. Everything else is peripheral, and the eye has to stop again.
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Saying every word
Inner speech helps comprehension, so it is not something to switch off. It is worth teaching it to keep up rather than to lead.
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Attention drifting
You reach the end of a page and remember nothing. Attention wandered, and the eye kept going by itself.
See it for yourself
Read this paragraph. The text moves the way a reader with regressions does — the meaning is there, but you keep losing your place.
While you read this paragraph your gaze does not glide in a straight line — it moves in short hops. Between them it freezes for an instant, and it is in those pauses that you make out the words. Every so often the eye slips backwards, to something it has already read. Usually there is nothing new there: the meaning landed the first time, attention simply wavered.
What slow reading costs you
Count study texts, work documents and books. Not sure? Your phone’s screen-time report shows minutes in reading apps.
Set your minutes and a gain.
Who it is for
If you read more than you have time for
The same practice serves different stacks of reading. Pick the one closest to yours and see what to train first and what the first week looks like.
Students
Course reading, papers and textbooks — with the details still in your head afterwards. What eats most of a student’s time is rereading: the eye slides back over lines it has already taken in, and attention drifts on dense pages. Train a steady tempo and fewer regressions, and check comprehension every time, not just speed.
A first week here
- A speed test to find your starting point
- One 12-minute program session a day
- A chapter of your own textbook read with the moving line
By the end of the week you know your real speed with comprehension, and you have read course material at a pace you set rather than one you drifted into.
Before an exam
A fixed amount of material and a fixed deadline: the training pays off where the time is scarce. A few days will not change your speed much, so use them differently — preview each chapter before reading it, read at a tempo you set instead of rereading, and keep the terms you keep forgetting in one list.
A first week here
- Preview each chapter: headings, first sentences, summary
- Read the material in the reader at a tempo you set
- Save unfamiliar terms and review them before the exam
By the end of the week the material has been read once, with a plan, and the terms that tripped you up come back for review on their own.
At work
Reports, documentation and long correspondence, read once instead of three times. At work the problem is rarely raw speed; it is attention drifting halfway down a page and the eye going back to find the thread. Practice holding a tempo on the documents you actually have to read.
A first week here
- Upload a PDF or DOCX report and read it with chunk highlighting
- Paste a long article as a link and read it later in the same reader
- One short program session a day, before the inbox
By the end of the week you read a long document once, at a set tempo, and know how much of it stayed.
For yourself
A stack of books you keep meaning to get to, and evenings that are shorter than the stack. Here speed matters less than getting into the book at all: a short daily session, a pace that carries you forward, and a streak that keeps the habit going.
A first week here
- Upload the book you have been putting off
- One session a day, ending in that book
- A streak counted in your own timezone
By the end of the week the book has moved, and you can see your own reading speed next to how much you understood.
Parents and kids
Speed is trained once a child already reads fluently; learning to read is a separate job. The attention drills and Schulte tables suit children from about seven. The program and the library assume adult reading, so for children the standalone exercises are the better route.
A first week here
- Pick two short exercises together
- Keep it short and stop while it is still fun
- Look at the score in each exercise, not at the clock
What fits depends on age — the section on kids and teens below breaks it down.
A speed reading course, first stage free
One session a day, decided for you
No catalog to choose from and no schedule to build. The program opens on today’s session: a short piece of theory, a warm-up, two drills and reading from a book. About twelve minutes.
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One idea of theory
A single card with a demo you can feel, not a lecture. Shown once, when it is needed.
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A warm-up
Two short drills to get the eyes moving. Always offered, always skippable.
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Two drills for today’s theme
Drawn from a pool, so the theme stays and the session changes.
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Reading from a real book
The session ends in a book with a speed-reading tool switched on, not in an abstract exercise.
The program does not end
Speed reading is a practice, not a course with a finish line. After the authored stages the program keeps building new ones on the same four skills, with the levels you have reached.
- A streak counted in your own timezone — a morning without training does not break it.
- One session a day is enough. Regularity is what the whole thing rests on.
- Every attempt is recorded, so the level grows with you instead of being picked by hand.
About 12 minutes. One session a day is enough.
Techniques
Speed reading techniques: what works and what is a myth
Seven techniques you will meet in every speed reading course, each with what it costs you in comprehension and where to practice it. Pick one and watch it run on the same paragraph.
Pacer
- How it works
- A finger, a pen or a moving line runs along the text, and the eye follows it instead of wandering back.
- What it costs comprehension
- Little at a comfortable tempo. Set it past what you can follow and you start skimming.
- Use it when
- Your attention drifts or you keep rereading lines.
- Trained by
- Moving line in the reader
Chunking
- How it works
- You read in short groups of words that belong together, so each stop of the eye lands on a phrase rather than a single word.
- What it costs comprehension
- Little while the groups follow the phrases. Forcing wide groups turns reading into guessing, because one stop takes in only a few characters clearly.
- Use it when
- You read word by word and the sentence falls apart before it ends.
- Trained by
- Chunk highlighting in the reader
Inner voice
- How it works
- Courses promise to switch off subvocalization, the silent saying of each word. In practice you train the inner voice to keep up with the eye rather than set the tempo.
- What it costs comprehension
- Silencing it completely costs a lot: inner speech helps you understand and remember [2]. Shortening it costs little.
- Use it when
- You hear every word in your head at speaking pace, even in easy text.
- Trained by
- Rapid Presentation exercise
Previewing
- How it works
- Before reading, you look over headings, first sentences and the summary. You start the text already knowing where it goes.
- What it costs comprehension
- Nothing. It usually helps, because a known structure is easier to follow.
- Use it when
- Textbooks, reports, papers — anything with structure.
- Trained by
- Words and Sentences exercise
Skimming
- How it works
- The eye jumps between key words and skips the rest to get the gist or find one fact.
- What it costs comprehension
- The details. Skimming is a separate, useful skill, not faster reading [2].
- Use it when
- Deciding whether a text is worth reading, or looking for one thing in it.
- Trained by
- See where reading turns into skimming
Word flash (RSVP)
- How it works
- Rapid serial visual presentation: words are shown one at a time in one place, so the eye does not travel along the line at all.
- What it costs comprehension
- You cannot glance back, so a word you missed stays missed. Measure it on yourself before relying on it for anything you must remember.
- Use it when
- Training tempo, or reading easy text on a small screen.
- Trained by
- Word flash in the reader
Bionic reading
- How it works
- The first half of every word is set in bold, meant to give the eye an anchor and let the mind finish the word.
- What it costs comprehension
- Unclear. The research reviews this page relies on do not test it, so we make no claim either way.
- Use it when
- You like how it feels and your own numbers do not drop.
- Trained by
- Measure it on yourself with the test →
Try it on this paragraph
Good readers do not take in every letter. The eye lands on a word, grabs a few characters around it, and jumps ahead to the next useful spot. Practice can make those jumps steadier, but each stop still has to be read before the meaning arrives.
Training
30 exercises, four directions
Each one trains a specific thing and scores it, so progress is a number rather than a feeling. The free ones can be tried without an account — this is speed reading practice online, in the browser, with nothing to download.
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Peripheral Vision
Schulte tables, grids and word tables: taking in more without moving the eye.
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Subvocalization
Word flash (RSVP) and paced reading: keeping the inner voice from setting the tempo.
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Concentration
Search, proofreading and the Stroop test: holding attention on the text under pressure.
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Memory
Number and word retention: reading faster is worth nothing if nothing stays.
A Schulte table, right here
Keep your eyes on the center and find the numbers from 1 to 25 in order. The table trains attention and a wider field of view; tap each number as you find it.
Next: 1
Reading itself
The same tools, inside your own book
A drill is practice; the reader is where it is used. Four tools, one at a time, at a tempo you set in words per minute. It is also a word-by-word RSVP reader that runs in the browser, on your own books.
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Moving line
A line runs along the text and sets the pace, skipping the gaps between paragraphs.
Use it when your eyes keep sliding back.
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Vanishing text
Words dissolve behind you, so there is nothing to slide back to.
Use it when rereading has become a habit rather than a need.
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Chunk highlighting
The text is lit in groups of words — the eye stops on a group instead of a word.
Use it when you read word by word.
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Word flash (RSVP)
Words are shown one at a time in place, so the eye does not travel at all.
Use it when you want to push tempo on easy text.
Paced reading, as it looks in the reader
While you read this paragraph your gaze does not glide in a straight line — it moves in short hops. Between them it freezes for an instant, and it is in those pauses that you make out the words. Every so often the eye slips backwards, to something it has already read. Usually there is nothing new there: the meaning landed the first time, attention simply wavered.
Word flash (RSVP), at your own tempo
300 is a comfortable start; push it until you lose the sentence.
Background noise and a metronome are in the reader as well — generated in the browser, no files to download. Try them in Background Sounds.
Your library
Your own books, and an AI that has read them in full
Upload a book and it stays on your device — training happens on what you actually read, not on sample texts.
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Seven formats
EPUB, PDF, DOCX, FB2, TXT, MOBI and RTF are converted on our side and open in the same reader.
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The same tools, inside your book
The pacer, word groups and the other speed-reading tools work on the book you uploaded, not only on our practice texts.
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AI summary: the whole book in twenty minutes
Upload any book and read it in short form: the main idea first, then the chapters, then the details. Every claim is tied to a verbatim quote, so the summary cannot invent what the book does not say.
A summary does not replace reading; it is for an overview before you start and for review after you finish.
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Book discussion in an AI chat
Ask questions and get answers from the full text of the book, not from a retelling of it.
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Quotes with your notes
Highlight a passage, add a note, and pull it into the chat when you want it explained.
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Articles and videos
Paste a link and read it later in the same reader — a long article or a YouTube video turned into an AI summary.
Will my book open?
Vocabulary
Words come from your reading, not from a list
Press and hold an unfamiliar word in a book: you get its meaning in that exact sentence, and the word joins your review queue. Especially useful for students and for reading in a foreign language.
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Spaced repetition
A word comes back just before it would be forgotten, and the interval grows every time you get it right.
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Stored in its dictionary form
Three forms of one word make a single card, with the sentence you met it in kept alongside.
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Reviews at the right time
A reminder in the evening, a badge in the menu, and a review session that ends instead of looping.
Tap an unfamiliar word
The committee’s reply was deliberately , and nobody could tell whether the plan had been .
In the sentence: “The committee’s reply was deliberately terse, and nobody could tell whether the plan had been abandoned.”
Next review: just before you would forget it.
Progress
One number that means one thing
Reading speed moves only from the speed test — the median of your last twenty attempts, each discounted by how much you understood. That makes it a reading progress tracker you can trust: the number grows only when you read faster and still understand.
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Your dashboard
Program, words, reading and exercises on one screen, with the growth since your first tests. Speed and comprehension are shown separately, so you see which one moved.
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Honest measurement
Reading fast without understanding does not raise the number: comprehension is part of the formula.
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A streak worth keeping
Counted by finished sessions in your own timezone, so it reflects training rather than page visits.
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An AI tip from your own numbers
One short suggestion a day, based only on what you have actually done.
Why fast without understanding does not count
Use your result from the test above, or a guess. No result yet? Take the test.
Set a speed and pick how many questions you got right.
Devices
Speed reading app on any device: PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android
ReadEater is one app that runs in the browser and installs straight from it as an app on a phone, a tablet or a computer, with no app store involved.
Speed reading app for a Windows PC
- Open readeater.com in Chrome or Edge.
- Click the install icon at the right end of the address bar.
- Confirm, and ReadEater opens in its own window with a shortcut on your desktop and in the Start menu.
Speed reading app for a Mac
- Open readeater.com in Chrome, Edge or Safari.
- In Chrome or Edge, click the install icon in the address bar; in Safari, choose File, then Add to Dock.
- ReadEater opens from the Dock like any other app.
Speed reading app for iPhone
- Open readeater.com in Safari.
- Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
- Tap Add, and ReadEater appears on your Home Screen as an app.
Speed reading app for iPad
- Open readeater.com in Safari.
- Tap Share in the toolbar, then Add to Home Screen.
- Tap Add. On the larger screen the reader shows more of the page at the same tempo.
Speed reading app for Android
- Open readeater.com in Chrome.
- Open the menu in the top corner and choose Install app (on some phones it is called Add to Home screen).
- Confirm, and ReadEater appears with your other apps.
Kindle e-readers
The trainer is not made for e-ink screens: the exercises and reading tools rely on motion and timing that an e-reader cannot show smoothly. Your own files in one of the seven formats can be read in ReadEater on a phone, a tablet or a computer instead.
Compare
Free app or paid speed reading course: how to choose
A classroom course, a video course, trainer software or an app — they differ less in technique than in how often you practice, on what text, and whether anyone measures what you understood. Here is the comparison in plain terms.
| Question | Classroom course | Online video course | Classic trainer software | ReadEater |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Paid per course | Paid per course or by subscription | One-off license or subscription | First stage free; Pro — see plans |
| Time a day | Set by the class schedule | As long as the lessons run | Up to you | One session of about 12 minutes |
| Practice on your own books | Usually course handouts | Usually the course’s examples | Depends on the program | Yes: seven formats, articles and videos |
| Comprehension measured | Depends on the teacher | Depends on the course | Depends on the program | Yes, in every speed test |
| Where | In person | Any browser | The computer it is installed on | Browser on PC, Mac, phone and tablet |
Check a course you are considering
Tick what the course you are looking at actually offers.
Children
Speed reading for kids and teens
Speed is trained once a child already reads fluently. Learning to read — phonics, the link between letters and sounds — is a different job, and it comes first. The attention drills and Schulte tables suit children from about seven; the program and the library assume adult reading, so for children the standalone exercises are the better route.
Under 7: learning to read comes first
At this age the job is decoding — matching letters to sounds and words to meaning. Speed drills do not help with that and can make reading feel like a race. Reading aloud together and letting the child read to you does more.
The parent’s role
Read together every day. Come back to speed once your child reads simple books fluently on their own.
7 to 9: short attention games
From about seven the attention drills and Schulte tables fit well. They feel like games, they score every attempt, and they train focus rather than pushing reading speed directly.
- Schulte Grid — find the numbers in order
- Even Numbers — spot the even ones fast
The parent’s role
Sit next to your child for the first attempts. Keep it short and stop while it is still fun.
10 to 12: attention, memory and focus
A fluent reader of this age can take on a wider set of drills: tables, number memory and the Stroop test, which trains holding attention when the brain wants to answer too fast.
The parent’s role
Let your child pick the exercises and look at the scores together. Short and regular beats long and rare.
13 to 17: school reading and exams
Teenagers meet the same problem as adults: more to read than time to read it. The standalone exercises stay the main route, and the reading speed test shows speed together with comprehension, so a teen sees that rushing does not pay.
The parent’s role
Agree on a short daily slot rather than a target speed. Talk about what stayed from the reading, not how fast it went.
Plainly
What speed reading can and cannot do
There are numbers in this field that sell well and do not survive checking. We would rather say what the research actually supports.
Does speed reading really work? Partly. Regular timed practice can raise reading speed by tens of percent over months while comprehension holds, mostly through a steadier tempo, fewer pointless regressions and attention kept on the page. Promises to double or triple your speed do not survive testing: past a point comprehension falls, and you are skimming, a separate skill [2].
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Speed and comprehension trade against each other. Beyond a certain point you are not reading faster, you are skimming — which is a separate, useful skill.
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There is no “a page at a glance”. The eye physically cannot take in a line at once, and no drill changes that.
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Inner speech is not the enemy: it helps you understand. Training aims at the surplus, not at silence.
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What does work is regularity, fewer pointless regressions, a set tempo, and attention held on the page.
Where the trade-off starts
Push the speed and watch what happens to the text.
At a calm pace every word arrives and the sentence holds together. Push harder and the gaps widen until only landmarks are left, and the rest is something you assume rather than read.
Reading
Each step is 50 words per minute; the labels are where comprehension starts to slip.
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Shown
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Linked, not proven
- Schulte tables and similar drills train attention; their link to everyday reading speed is weak.
- A pacer or a set tempo helps some readers keep regressions down; the size of the effect varies from person to person.
- Reading more, and knowing more words and more about a topic, goes together with reading faster in it [2].
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Not known yet
- Whether bold-letter formats such as bionic reading help at all.
- How much of the gain from drills carries over to long, difficult texts.
- Anything that would let a person read well past 1000 words per minute with full comprehension. No evidence for it exists.
Why ReadEater measures comprehension separately: a speed number that ignores understanding rewards skimming. See how the number is counted →
About
Who makes ReadEater, and how the method is checked
ReadEater is a speed reading trainer built around one rule: a speed number means nothing without comprehension next to it. These are the principles behind every exercise and every number on this page.
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Comprehension is measured next to speed
Every speed test ends with questions, and the result is discounted by how much you understood. Reading faster without understanding does not move your progress.
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Numbers cite their source
Average speeds and what training can change come from published research reviews, linked at the end of this page.
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No promises past the data
No “ten times faster”, no 1000 words per minute with full understanding. You see your own numbers instead of our promises.
Updated: October 2026
Results
Results you can check, not quotes you have to trust
There are no hand-picked testimonials on this page. In ReadEater a result is a number you produce yourself, with comprehension printed next to it, so you can see on your own reading whether the practice works for you — and stop if it does not.
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Before: your starting number
Take the reading speed test on this page today. Write down three numbers: speed, the share of questions you got right, and effective speed. That is the baseline every later result is compared with.
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During: one number per session
Each daily session ends with the same measurement. The progress number is the median of many attempts, so one lucky passage cannot inflate it and one bad day cannot sink it. How it is counted is shown in the progress tracker.
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After a month: compare like with like
Retake the test on a text of the same kind and compare effective speed, not raw speed. A realistic gain from regular practice is tens of percent over months while comprehension holds; a jump to double or triple usually means skimming [2].
Reading someone else’s result? Ask three things before you believe it: was comprehension measured, on what kind of text, and over how many attempts. A speed figure without those answers says nothing about reading. What the research supports →
Plans
Start free
The first stage of the program, the free exercises and your own books in the reader cost nothing. Pro opens the whole program and every exercise, and adds everything built on AI.
What do you need?
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Free
- 5 program sessions, one a day — the whole first stage
- Free exercises with progress and levels
- Your own books in the reader
- A starter set of words, reviews without a limit
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Pro
- AI summaries of books, articles and videos
- Chat about the book, grounded in its full text
- Speed-reading tools in the reader without a time limit
- Unlimited word lookups while reading, with spaced repetition on top
Plan terms and refunds: Pricing · Refund policy.
Speed reading FAQ
How much time does it take each day?
One session a day — around twelve minutes. Regularity matters more than length: a short daily session does more than an hour once a week.
When will I see results?
Honestly, it depends on you and on what you read. The first thing that changes is not speed but the habit of not sliding back and of holding a tempo. Speed itself is measured by the test, so you look at your own numbers rather than at our promises.
Is it suitable for children?
The attention drills and Schulte tables suit children from about seven. The program and the library assume adult reading, so for children the standalone exercises are the better route. What fits each age is laid out in speed reading for kids and teens.
Will comprehension suffer?
Speed and comprehension are linked, which is why the test multiplies your result by how well you answered questions about the text. If comprehension drops, the number does not grow — so you can see the real limit.
Do I have to pay?
Not for the basics. The first stage of the program, the free exercises and your own books are free. Pro opens the whole program and every exercise, and adds AI summaries and the chat about a book. Details are on the Pricing page.
Is speed reading training free?
The core of it is. The free exercises can be tried without an account, the reading speed test on this page needs nothing at all, and a free account opens the whole first stage of the program — five daily sessions — plus your own books in the reader. See the free speed reading exercises.
What is the best free online speed reading course?
The one you will actually do every day, and the one that measures comprehension next to speed. Check any course for six things: comprehension measured, short daily practice, your own texts, progress as numbers, a free part before paying, and no promises past 1000 words per minute. The course comparison and checklist walks through them.
What can I read while training?
Your own books in EPUB, PDF, DOCX, FB2, TXT, RTF and MOBI, articles and videos you paste as a link, and the books from our catalog.
Does speed reading work?
Partly. Doubling or tripling your speed always costs comprehension — that is the finding of the 2016 research review by Rayner and colleagues [2]. What does work is regular timed practice: a gain of tens of percent over months, with comprehension measured next to speed. The program is built on that.
What is the average reading speed?
An adult reads English silently at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction (Brysbaert, 2019, a review of 190 studies) [1]. The reading speed test shows your own number in a few minutes, together with how much you understood.
How fast can a person realistically read?
Starting from the adult average of about 238 words per minute, regular practice brings gains of tens of percent over months [2]. Well beyond that, comprehension starts to slip and reading turns into skimming. The reading speed facts show where each range sits.
Does bionic reading help?
We do not know, and the research reviews we rely on do not test it. If you like the format, measure it on yourself: take the speed test with and without it and compare comprehension, not just speed. See speed reading techniques for how it compares with the others.
Is there an app? Does it work on a phone?
Yes. ReadEater installs straight from the browser as an app on a phone, a tablet or a computer, with no app store involved. Steps for each device are in the speed reading app on any device.
What happens after I click Start free?
You create a free account, and today’s session opens: a short piece of theory, a warm-up, two drills and reading from a book. The first stage of the program — five sessions, one a day — is free in full.
How do I cancel?
The free plan has nothing to cancel. For Pro, plan terms are on the Pricing page and refunds are described in the Refund policy; if anything is unclear, contact support.
Resources
Free speed reading tools and the research behind them
The free tools that need no account, the two research reviews our numbers come from, and a quick way back to any part of this page.
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On this page
- How to increase reading speed: find what slows you down first
- Speed reading techniques compared: pacer, chunking, RSVP, bionic reading
- Reading speed test explained: speed, comprehension, effective speed
- Average reading speed and what is realistic
- How to choose a speed reading course: a six-point checklist
- Speed reading for kids and teens by age
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Free tools and exercises
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Research
- Rayner et al., 2016: So Much to Read, So Little Time — How Do We Read, and Can Speed Reading Help? Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
- Brysbaert, 2019: How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language.
How these findings apply to training is summed up in what speed reading can and cannot do.
Start with a single session
Twelve minutes today, and you will already know your own reading speed — measured together with comprehension, on your own books from the first week.
The first stage of the program is free in full.