How to Display Estimated Post Reading Time in Your WordPress Posts

After publishing thousands of articles on WPBeginner, we’ve learned that small user experience improvements can make a huge difference in reader engagement. Like the simple estimated reading time display you see on sites like Medium and countless blogs.

At WPBeginner, we have written over 3000 blog posts, and in our experience, strategies like displaying reading time or progress bars give readers the confidence to finish reading an article.

When readers know upfront that an article will take 3 minutes versus 15 minutes, they’re more likely to start reading and actually finish it.

Today, we’ll show you exactly how to add estimated reading time to your WordPress posts. We’ve tested several different methods, and we’ll share the easiest approaches that work reliably across different themes and setups.

Why Add Estimated Post Reading Time in WordPress Posts?

First, displaying estimated post-reading time sets clear expectations. When readers see ‘5-minute read’, they can decide if they have time right now or should bookmark it for later. This reduces bounce rates because people aren’t caught off guard by longer content than expected.

Second, it builds trust and transparency. Just like how Netflix shows episode lengths, displaying reading time shows you respect your readers’ time. This small gesture can significantly improve user experience and encourage return visits.

Third, it can actually increase completion rates. When people see a manageable reading time like ‘3 minutes’, they’re more likely to commit and finish the entire article. This improved engagement sends positive signals to search engines and can help boost your SEO rankings.

We’ve also found that reading time estimates work particularly well alongside other engagement features like reading progress bars. Together, they create a reader-friendly experience that keeps people on your site longer.

Ready to add this feature to your WordPress site? We’ll show you two proven methods below. Choose the one that matches your technical comfort level:

Method 1: Displaying Estimated Reading Time in Your WordPress Posts With a Code Snippet (Recommended)

You can quickly display estimated reading time in your WordPress posts using WPCode, a free code snippets plugin.

WPCode allows you to add custom code in WordPress without touching your theme’s functions.php file, which makes it safer and easier to do website customizations.

It comes with a built-in library of useful code snippets for popular feature requests like display reading time, add ‘new’ badge for recent posts, disable Gravatar avatars, display progress bar, and more. This eliminates the need to install a bunch of single-use plugins.

To get started, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. If you need help, then see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for instructions.

Once the plugin is activated, go to Code Snippets » Library from the WordPress dashboard.

From the Snippets Library page, search for the ‘Display Reading Time’ snippet. Once you find it, hover over it and click the ‘Use snippet’ button.

On the next page, you’ll see that WPCode has automatically added the code.

It also will set the proper insertion method to display the estimated reading time before your content.

Now, all you need to do is toggle the switch from ‘Inactive’ to ‘Active’ and then hit the ‘Update’ button.

That’s it. You can visit your WordPress site and see the estimated reading time displayed on your posts.

Method 2: Displaying Estimated Reading Time in Your WordPress Posts With a Plugin

If you don’t want to add any other customizations to your website with a code snippet plugin, you can show estimated reading time by using the Read Meter plugin.

Read Meter is a free WordPress plugin that helps you show the reading time and progress bar on your website. It also comes with built-in settings that you can use to edit the appearance of the reading time notification without touching any code.

First, you will need to install and activate the Read Meter plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Read Meter page from your WordPress dashboard to configure the plugin settings.

In the ‘General Settings’ tab, you can select the post types to show the reading time on.

For instance, the plugin lets you display the reading time on your blog posts and pages. If you have an online store, then there will also be an option to do this on your product pages.

You can also adjust the average reading speed. By default, the plugin calculates reading time by estimating 275 words per minute reading speed.

There is also an option to include comments and images when estimating the time it will take to read the blog post.

Next, you can head over to the ‘Read Time’ tab to customize the exact text that will appear.

At the top, the plugin lets you choose whether to show the read time on blog posts, your home page, and your archive pages.

Besides that, you can change the appearance of the reading time notification.

There are settings for the font size, position of the read time, background color, text color, and a lot more.

When you have made the changes, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button.

After that, you can go to the ‘Progress Bar’ tab and edit the settings. You will see options to select the position of the bar (top or bottom of the page) or completely disable it from your WordPress site.

You can also change its style, background color, primary color, and bar thickness.

After editing your progress bar settings, go ahead and click the ‘Save’ button. Now, your readers will see the estimated reading time on each post.

You can now visit your WordPress website to see the reading time and a progress bar in action.

Expert Guides on Improving the WordPress Reading Experience

We hope this article helped you learn how to display estimated post reading time in your WordPress posts. You may also want to see some other guides related to improving the reading experience in WordPress:

• How to Add a Reading Progress Bar in WordPress Posts
• How to Add and Improve Readability Score in WordPress Posts
• How to Add Text to Speech in WordPress (Step by Step)
• How to Track User Engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics
• How to Add WordPress Reaction Buttons to Boost Engagement
• How to Write a Great Blog Post (Structure + Examples)
• How to Show Personalized Content to Different Users in WordPress
• How to Understand WordPress Website Visitors Intent
• Is Blogging Dead? (Our Expert Opinion)

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