ReadingRate · What's new · 2026-02-12
Time your reading sessions
ReadingRate has a reading timer that runs on the web, on the phone, on the Apple Watch and in the Mac menu bar. Start it when you sit down; when you stop it asks what page you reached, so the session records minutes and pages together rather than one without the other. On the iPhone it runs as a Live Activity, keeping the elapsed time and your progress ring on the lock screen. It's free.
Available on web and iOS.
Minutes alone tell you that you sat with a book. Pages alone tell you how far you got. Only the two together give a reading speed, and that is what turns a timer from a stopwatch into something that improves the finish-date projection.
Elapsed time is worked out from timestamps rather than counted by a ticking clock, so locking the phone, switching apps or closing the tab loses nothing. The Mac menu bar reads the same running session as the phone.
Sessions become the day's page log, which is what the finish-date projection reads. Time your reading and the projection sharpens as a by-product.
What it can't do
- It cannot tell that you stopped reading. There is no idle detection and no automatic stop, so a timer left running keeps counting all night.
- Sessions under ten seconds are discarded rather than saved.
- The Live Activity shows the session and links back into the app to log, quote or finish. There are no pause or stop buttons on the lock screen itself.
- Words per minute is stored from the phone and the Watch. The web timer shows the estimate but does not record it.
- A reading speed is only as good as the book's word count and the page numbers you enter.
Questions people ask
- Does ReadingRate have a reading timer?
- Yes, free, on the web, iPhone, Apple Watch and the Mac menu bar. It asks what page you reached when you stop, so each session records both minutes and pages, and on iPhone it runs as a lock-screen Live Activity.
- Does the timer keep running if I close the app?
- Yes. Elapsed time is calculated from timestamps rather than a running counter, so locking the phone, switching apps or closing the tab does not lose the session.