How to show Estimated Post Reading Time in WordPress

Whether you have long or short posts – displaying “Estimated Post Reading Time” is always a nice add-on. This information encourages visitors to read through the complete article, specially when article is long – as visitors can clearly see time it would take to read the full article.

There are number of plugins to display ‘reading time’ information on WordPress posts, pages and homepage. Each plugin has its pros and cons depending on the method of implementation and various customization options.

1. Automatic display with options to hide on post, page, home

Insert Estimated Reading Time – This plugin provide lot of options to customize final output of “estimated reading time”. Once installed and activated, it automatically adds reading time below the post title on WordPress website.

From settings, you can hide display of reading time on home, frontpage, posts or pages as per requirement. You can also change format with display of minutes, seconds and characters.

2. Automatic display with shortcode method support

Estimated Post Reading Time – This plugin automatically adds “estimated post reading time” under post title on homepage and single post pages. You do not have to manually insert any PHP code to get the output. Once installed, goto Plugin’s setting on the left side.

There enter words per minute value like 60 and prefix text like “Estimated Read Time : ” that you want to show before the time figure. Checking “enclose estimated time in paragraph tags” option produce better format output. You can also use [est_time] shortcode in text mode of post editor. But this results in showing time at multiple places within same post as there is no way to turn off default time display text displayed under post title.

3. Add with manual php code or widget on sidebar

Post Reading Time – This plugin is for geeks who want to show “Post Reading Time” at specific location within WordPress post. You need to insert manual php code (see plugin FAQs) in single.php file at required location.

If you want to display ‘Post Reading Time’ in the sidebar like at top right part – then goto widgets section and drag the ‘Post Reading Time’ widget to sidebar location of your choice.