Our story began with a question: What if we could help people reclaim their time and focus in a world overflowing with words? Like many of you, we’ve felt the weight of endless articles, dense textbooks, and overflowing inboxes. Students racing against deadlines, professionals juggling reports, lifelong learners hungry for knowledge—everyone deserves tools to read smarter, not harder.
At it’s inception, thereadtime.com was just a humble web tool: a reading time calculator designed to answer one simple question: “How long will this take to read?” Students, professionals and everyday readers told us how this tool transformed their routines, giving them back precious minutes (or hours!) to spend on what truly mattered.
But we wanted to do more…
So we expanded into a suite of free tools — each crafted to solve real-world reading challenges. Whether it was stripping clutter from web pages or testing reading speed, our mission stayed the same: democratise the joy of efficient reading.
Then, our community asked for something bigger.
You wanted to do more than measure reading time—you wanted to redefine the reading process. So we built The Read Time Speed Reading Extension, merging our signature simplicity with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation technology. No gimmicks, no hype—just a seamless way to read web content at your ideal pace, free from distractions.
Today, your feedback drives everything. From adding PDF support to refining our text-to-speech voices (available for Plus users), we focus on features that adapt to your life.
Why? Because reading is more than words on a screen.
It’s the spark of a new idea.
The quiet confidence of knowing you can keep up—and get ahead.
We’re not just building software. We’re creating a space where anyone, regardless of background or learning style, can unlock the full potential of their reading journey.
Thank you for trusting us with yours.
— The Read Time Team