Speed Reading Apps: Do They Work, and How to Pick the Best One

What kinds of speed reading apps are there?

Most apps are one of four kinds, or a mix. RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) flashes one word, or a short group, at a time in a single spot, so your eyes stay still. A pacer is a highlight that moves through ordinary text at a speed you set.

Kind of app	What it does	What the research says
RSVP (word-by-word) reader	Shows one word or a short group at a time in a fixed spot	Like normal reading at normal speeds; faster means less comprehension (Rayner et al., 2016)
Pacer or guided reading	Moves a highlight through normal text	No controlled studies we know of; you keep the page and can look back
Course and drills	Lessons, timed drills and quizzes	Courses can raise speed, but comprehension tends to slip (Rayner et al., 2016)
Eye exercises and attention games	Schulte tables, eye-movement drills	No study we found shows they make you read faster

Do speed reading apps work?

As practice, they can help. As a way to read, the evidence is weak, especially for RSVP readers, the kind researchers have tested most.

• Passages. In studies summarised by Rayner et al. (2016), RSVP matched normal reading at about 200 words per minute. At 400 and 600, readers still caught the topic but recalled fewer details, and removing the pauses between sentences made comprehension worse.
• App speeds. At 700 and 1,000 words per minute, readers understood static text better than RSVP, on texts at 6th- and 12th-grade level (Acklin & Papesh, 2017).
• Spritz. People who read a novel chapter with Spritz for more than 20 minutes were no faster than on paper (about 200 words per minute either way), reported more eye fatigue and recalled fewer literal details (Benedetto et al., 2015).

Part of the reason: word-by-word display takes away your look-backs. Skilled readers look back on 10–15% of their eye movements (Rayner, 2009), and blocking them lowers comprehension (Schotter et al., 2014). Nor do eye movements eat most of your reading time, as Spritz was quoted claiming (80%); the review puts it at about 10% (Rayner et al., 2016). So an RSVP app makes a good drill, but a faster pace only counts if it survives a comprehension check.

How do you choose the best speed reading app?

Use this checklist on any app, ours included.

1. A comprehension check after every drill. A classic study of more than 12,000 readers counted a reading rate only when at least 70% of the answers were right (Brysbaert, 2019). The questions should need the text: in one course study, people who never saw the passage still got 57% of its non-fiction questions right (Rayner et al., 2016).
2. A pace you control. Start near your own speed and step up slowly; comprehension holds best near normal rates.
3. Pauses and a way back. A pause at each sentence end and a button that jumps back a sentence both protect comprehension.
4. Real texts you choose. Pasting an article you need anyway shows whether the pace carries over. Measure progress on a new text each time; reused texts have inflated course results before (Rayner et al., 2016).
5. A practice plan and a streak. Gains from practice are real but slow (Rayner et al., 2016). A plan and a streak help you show up; they are not proof that you improved.
6. Honest claims. Be wary of “1,000 words per minute with full comprehension”, promises to double or triple your speed, and eye exercises sold as speed boosters. When 16 strong readers, including self-described speed readers, were tested, comprehension dropped sharply above about 600 words per minute (Carver, 1985).

Is there a free speed reading app?

Yes. Many speed reading apps are free to download, with optional subscriptions, so price rarely decides it. Before you pay, check that the free part already tests your comprehension, on iPhone or Android alike.

Where does Speed Readingo fit?

Speed Readingo is our app: we make it and this site, so read this as a description, not a review. It runs on iPhone and Android and is free to download, with an optional Premium subscription inside the app. It has a lesson path, RSVP drills up to 1,200 words per minute, Schulte tables, memory games, a daily streak and comprehension checks, in English, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese and German.

The top RSVP speeds are drill paces, like a heavier weight in the gym, not speeds at which you catch every detail: the studies above show comprehension falling well before 1,200. The Schulte table is an attention game; we do not claim it speeds up reading. Judge the app by the same checklist.

Try before you install

These are free and run in your browser:

• The drill at the top of this page flashes words at 300 per minute, the top of the range at which most adults read English non-fiction (Brysbaert, 2019).
• The RSVP reader plays any text you paste at 100 to 1,000 words per minute, with pauses at sentence ends.
• The reading speed test shows your speed next to your comprehension.
• The speed reading exercises add a pacer, word groups and the Schulte table, with a 10-minute daily plan.

If these give you what you need, you may not need an app at all.

Next: does speed reading work? What the research says.

Read next: Speed reading techniques that work · How to remember what you read.

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