This value is intended to help readers and authors to understand how much time it will take a typical adult to read a piece of content.
The platform uses a simple algorithm to predict reading time as follows:
$$ Reading\ Time = Word\ Count / Words\ per\ Minute $$
In most calculations, Words per Minute is set to a default value of 300 to match the average reading speed of an adult.
However, in some calculations, the textual complexity of the content is also taken into consideration as follows:
$$ Reading\ Time = Word\ Count / (Words\ per\ Minute - FleschKincaid\ Reading\ Ease\ Score) $$
This adjusts the Words per Minute to a range of 200 (for difficult content) to 300 (for easy content).