Speed Reading & Listening Software for Chrome

What is speed reading?

Speed reading is a collection of techniques designed to increase your reading rate while maintaining comprehension. The average adult reads at approximately 238 words per minute for silent reading, according to a comprehensive meta-analysis of over 100 studies involving more than 18,000 participants (Marc Brysbaert, 2019). Speed reading techniques can help you exceed this average significantly, with practiced readers achieving 400-600 words per minute or more.

Speed reading works by training your brain to process text more efficiently, reducing habits that slow you down, such as subvocalization (silently pronouncing words) and regression (re-reading text unnecessarily).

What is Rapid Serial Visual Presentation technology?

RSVP, or Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, is a speed reading technique where text is displayed one word (or small chunk of words) at a time in a fixed position on the screen. Instead of your eyes moving across lines of text, the words come to you at a controlled pace.

This method eliminates two major bottlenecks in traditional reading:

1. Saccadic eye movements: The quick jumps your eyes make between words consume time and mental energy. RSVP removes this entirely.

2. Regression: The unconscious habit of re-reading words or lines. With RSVP, text flows forward continuously, breaking this pattern.

Our chrome extension uses RSVP technology to help you speed read any webpage, allowing you to adjust the words per minute (WPM) value to match your comfort level and gradually increase your reading speed over time.

Does speed reading reduce comprehension?

Not necessarily. While reading extremely fast may sacrifice comprehension, reading at speeds of 400-600 WPM can actually improve focus without comprehension loss for many readers.

Here's why: at slower speeds, your mind has time to wander. You might re-read sentences, daydream, or lose track of the content. Speed reading forces active engagement with the text, keeping your brain focused on processing information rather than drifting.

The key is finding your optimal speed—fast enough to maintain focus, but not so fast that you miss important details. Our speed reading software lets you experiment with different speeds and chunk sizes to find what works best for you. You can also use our free reading speed test to measure your comprehension at various speeds.

What is subvocalization & does it limit reading speed?

Subvocalization is the habit of silently pronouncing words in your head as you read. While this helps with comprehension for complex material, it artificially limits your reading speed to roughly the pace of speech — around 150-200 words per minute.

Research shows that the average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute (Brysbaert, 2019). If you subvocalise everything, you're essentially capping your reading speed near this limit.

Speed reading techniques, particularly RSVP, help reduce subvocalization by presenting words faster than you can "speak" them internally. Over time, your brain learns to process text visually without the inner voice, unlocking significantly faster reading speeds.