📄 Resume Reading Time Estimator

Paste your resume text to see its word count and an estimated skim time, based on typical recruiter reading speed.

Resume Text

How the times are estimated

The text you paste is trimmed and split on whitespace, so a word is any run of characters with a space or line break either side. Two fixed reading speeds turn that count into seconds:

words    = whitespace-separated chunks of the pasted text
skim     = words ÷ 400 words per minute
thorough = words ÷ 200 words per minute

A 600-word resume therefore shows a 1 min 30 sec skim and a 3 min 0 sec careful read. The length assessment is a plain band: under 300 words is flagged as sparse, 300 to 700 as a typical one-to-two-page resume, and anything over 700 as worth trimming.

Reading the numbers honestly

Both speeds are assumptions, not measurements. They estimate someone reading every line in order. A first pass over a stack of applications is closer to scanning - most recent title, employer, dates - so treat the skim figure as the attention your resume could absorb, not the attention it will get.
Everything you paste counts. Dates, bullet glyphs, your address and a skills list all add words, and the character count includes spaces and line breaks. Paste plain text; copying from a two-column PDF often interleaves the columns and inflates the total.
The bands are conventions. An academic CV with publications or a government application form is long by design and should not be cut to fit a 700-word ceiling.

Frequently asked questions

How many words should a resume be?

This tool treats 300 to 700 words as the normal one-to-two-page range. Below 300 tends to look thin for someone with ten years behind them, and above 700 there is usually repetition to cut - though academic and research CVs are a genuine exception.

How long does a recruiter actually spend on a resume?

Far less than a full read on the first pass, and no calculator can tell you the number for a particular employer. What you can control is the ratio: the shorter the skim time, the more of your resume fits inside whatever attention it gets.

Will this match the word count in Word or Google Docs?

Usually within a few words, not exactly. Anything separated by whitespace is one word here, so a hyphenated pair counts once and a bullet character stuck to the first word counts with it.