Bible reading calculator
How long does it take to read the Bible?
About 51 hours if you read it silently. That's every one of its 725,239 words, counted. Read a little each day and it's about 8 minutes a day for a year.
- Silently
- 51 hours
- Out loud
- 66 hours
- Listening
- 76 hours
Make a plan that fits your days
Pick what you want to read and how much time you have. You'll get a finish date and what to read each day.
How will you read it?
Plan by
15 minutes a day
Reading days
Reading the whole Bible silently takes about 51 hours in all.
Each day
15 min
Reading days
204
You finish
…
That's about 6 chapters a day, 1,189 chapters in all.
Your first week
Whole chapters, balanced by length
- Day 1Genesis 1-615 min
- Day 2Genesis 7-1315 min
- Day 3Genesis 14-1916 min
- Day 4Genesis 20-2416 min
- Day 5Genesis 25-2813 min
- Day 6Genesis 29-3113 min
- Day 7Genesis 32-3717 min
How many minutes a day?
For the most popular plans, reading every day.
The Bible in a year
About 3 chapters a day
Silently8 min
Out loud11 min
Listening12 min
The Bible in 6 months
About 7 chapters a day
Silently17 min
Out loud22 min
Listening25 min
The Bible in 90 days
About 13 chapters a day
Silently34 min
Out loud44 min
Listening50 min
The New Testament in 90 days
About 3 chapters a day
Silently8 min
Out loud10 min
Listening12 min
The New Testament in 30 days
About 9 chapters a day
Silently24 min
Out loud31 min
Listening36 min
The Gospels in 30 days
About 3 chapters a day
Silently11 min
Out loud14 min
Listening16 min
How long each book takes
Reading silently. Tap a book for out loud and audio times and a chapter-by-chapter breakdown.
History
Poetry and Wisdom
Minor Prophets
The early church
Paul's letters
General letters
Prophecy
How we worked this out
We counted every word of the Berean Standard Bible, a modern translation that's free for anyone to use: 725,239 words in 1,189 chapters and 31,086 verses. Every time on this page comes from those counts.
Then we used reading speeds from research. A 2019 review of 190 studies found that adults read nonfiction silently at about 238 words a minute and out loud at about 183 (Marc Brysbaert, Journal of Memory and Language). Audio Bibles are narrated a little slower, so for listening we use 160 words a minute, which lines up with well-known recordings of the whole Bible.
Other translations run a little longer or shorter, and everyone reads at their own pace. Treat these as close estimates, not stopwatch times. Going slower to think about what you read is a good thing.
Common questions
How long does it take to read the Bible out loud?
About 66 hours at a comfortable reading-aloud pace of 183 words a minute. Audio Bible narrators read a little slower, so listening to the whole Bible takes about 76 hours.
How many minutes a day does it take to read the Bible in a year?
About 8 minutes a day if you read silently, 11 minutes out loud, or 12 minutes with an audio Bible, every day for a year.
How many chapters a day do I need to read to finish the Bible in a year?
The Bible has 1,189 chapters, so about 3 or 4 a day. Chapters vary a lot in length, though: Psalm 117 is two verses and Psalm 119 is 176. The calculator above balances each day by reading time instead, so the days come out close to the same length.
How long does it take to read the New Testament?
About 12 hours reading silently, or 16 hours out loud. It has 260 chapters, so at one chapter a day you'd finish in 260 days, a little over eight months.
What's the longest book of the Bible, and the shortest?
Psalms is the longest, with 150 chapters and 40,411 words, about 2 hours 50 minutes of reading. The shortest is 2 John, 293 words you can read in about 1 minute.
Where should I start if I've never read the Bible?
Many people start with the Gospel of John, which takes about 1 hour 15 minutes to read. It tells the story of Jesus and was written so readers would come to trust Him. From there, Genesis and Acts are good next steps.
Does listening to the Bible count?
Yes. For most of history, most Christians heard the Bible read aloud rather than reading it themselves. Some people take in more by listening while they follow along in the text. What matters most is coming back to it day after day.
Why do other websites give different times?
They count different translations and assume different reading speeds, and most don't say which. We count every word of one translation and use reading speeds measured in research, and we show our numbers above so you can check them.