Reading the whole Bible takes about 70 to 80 hours of total reading time, which comes out to roughly 15 minutes a day over one year. Read it faster and you can finish in 40 or 90 days. Read a chapter a day and it takes a little over three years. Friend, I want to take the mystery out of this for you, because the number is usually what stops people before they start. It is not a mountain. It is a walk, and you get to pick the pace. Here is the full breakdown, plan by plan. If you want a short, guided way to begin, our free 5-day journey, Feel Close to God Again, takes about ten minutes a day.
How long does it take to read the whole Bible?
The whole Bible takes the average reader about 70 to 80 hours to read from cover to cover. That estimate comes from the Bible’s length, around 783,000 words, and a typical adult reading speed of a little over 200 words per minute, plus time to slow down and think.
Spread that across a year and it is about 12 to 15 minutes a day. That is shorter than most people spend scrolling before they get out of bed. The length was never really the problem. The plan was.
How many words and chapters are in the Bible?
The Bible contains 66 books, 1,189 chapters, and roughly 783,000 words in a common English translation. The Old Testament makes up about three quarters of that, with 929 chapters, and the New Testament has 260 chapters and around 180,000 words.
Put simply, the New Testament is about a quarter of the whole Bible. That is why so many beginners start there. You can get through the entire story of Jesus and the early church in a fraction of the time it takes to read everything.
A few length facts that help you plan. The longest book is Psalms, and the longest chapter, Psalm 119, runs 176 verses on its own. The shortest chapter, Psalm 117, is two verses. Some books, like Philemon, 2 John, and Jude, take about three minutes each. So the daily reading is never evenly sized, and that is normal. Some days you cover a lot of ground quickly and some days one dense chapter is the whole session.
How long does it take to read the Bible at different paces?
Your finish date depends almost entirely on how much you read per sitting. Here is what different paces actually add up to.
| Pace | Time to finish the whole Bible |
|---|---|
| 1 chapter a day | About 3 years and 3 months |
| 15 minutes a day | About 1 year |
| 3 to 4 chapters a day | About 1 year |
| 30 minutes a day | About 6 months |
| 12 chapters a day | About 90 days |
| About 2 hours a day | About 40 days |
| Straight through, no stopping | About 3 days |
Notice how gentle the one-year pace is. Fifteen minutes is not a heroic amount of time. It is a coffee’s worth.
How long does it take to read the Bible in one sitting?
Reading the Bible straight through with no breaks would take roughly three full days, about 70 hours of continuous reading. Nobody really does it that way. People who “read the Bible in a weekend” are usually doing a reading marathon, several long sessions across two or three days, often with a group and an audio version running alongside.
If that sounds fun to you, go for it once. It gives you the whole sweep of the story in your mind at once, and you catch connections between the Old and New Testaments that are hard to see when the reading is spread over months. Just know it is genuinely tiring, so plan for real breaks, food, and sleep. Then slow down and go back through it a chapter at a time to actually live in it. Most people who do a marathon read say the fast pass and the slow pass do different things, and you want both.
How long does it take to read just the New Testament?
The New Testament takes about 24 hours of total reading time, or roughly two months at 30 minutes a day. At a gentler 15 minutes a day it is about three to four months.
This is the plan I would point most new readers to first. Start with the Gospel of John, then Mark, Matthew, and Luke, then Acts and the letters. By the time you finish, you know Jesus, and the rest of the Bible reads differently because you are reading it in the light of Him.
What is a realistic Bible reading plan for a beginner?
A realistic beginner plan is either a one-year plan at about 15 minutes a day or a New Testament plan at 10 to 15 minutes a day. Pick based on how the longer number makes you feel.
- New Testament in 3 months. Lowest pressure, fastest sense of progress. Great for a first time through.
- Whole Bible in a year. The classic. Most one-year Bibles and apps split the daily reading for you, often with a bit of Old Testament, New Testament, and a psalm each day.
- Chronological one-year plan. Reads events roughly in the order they happened, which helps the story hang together.
- 90-day challenge. Intense, about 12 chapters a day. Only try this if a fast, immersive read sounds energizing rather than exhausting.
Here is what week one of a New Testament plan can look like: Monday, John 1. Tuesday, John 2. Wednesday, John 3. And so on, one chapter of John each day. That is the entire assignment. It is small enough that you will not dread it, and steady enough that in about three weeks you will have finished a whole Gospel.
You may be thinking you have started reading plans before and never finished one. A lot of people carry that. Two things usually make the difference this time: start with the shortest realistic plan instead of the most ambitious one, and pick up on today’s date when you miss a day rather than trying to catch up. Missed days are not failure. Quitting is the only way to lose here, and you can always start again tomorrow.
Whatever you choose, put a checkbox on it. Marking the day done is a small win that keeps the streak alive.
Should you read or listen to the Bible?
Both reading and listening to the Bible count, and many people do both. A full audio Bible runs about 75 hours at normal speed, and most apps let you speed it up, which brings a full listen closer to 40 to 50 hours.
Listening is a good fit for a commute, a walk, chores, or the end of a long day when your eyes are tired. Reading with your eyes tends to help you slow down, notice details, and remember specifics. A common rhythm is to listen to the day’s chapter first to get the flow, then read the part that stood out. Free apps like YouVersion include audio for most translations at no cost.
Does it matter how fast you read the Bible?
How fast you read the Bible matters far less than whether you understand it and keep coming back. This is not a race with a prize for finishing early.
One chapter you actually think about will change more in you than five chapters you skim and forget by lunch. Some days you will read three verses and need to just sit there. That still counts. If you want a simple way to slow down and let the reading stick, the SOAP Bible study method gives you a ten-minute frame, and if you are brand new, here is where to start reading the Bible.
Frequently asked questions
Can you read the whole Bible in 40 days?
Yes, you can read the whole Bible in 40 days, but it takes about two hours of reading a day. Several published 40-day and 8-week plans break it into daily portions. It is a big commitment for a short window, so many people pair it with an audio Bible to keep the pace.
Can you read the entire Bible in a day?
Reading the entire Bible in a single day is not realistic, since it takes around 70 hours of continuous reading. The closest version is a group reading marathon spread over two or three days, often with an audio recording playing alongside so listeners can rest their eyes.
How long does it take to read the Bible 30 minutes a day?
At 30 minutes a day, you can read the whole Bible in about six months. The same pace gets you through the New Testament in roughly two months. Thirty minutes is about 8 to 10 chapters for most readers.
How long does it take to read the Bible one chapter a day?
Reading one chapter a day, it takes about three years and three months to finish the Bible, since there are 1,189 chapters. It is a slow, steady pace that many people find easy to keep for the long haul, and you can speed up any time you want to.
Feel close to God again in 5 days
Ten minutes a day. A short passage, a simple prayer, one small step. No pressure and no guilt, just a gentle way back to His presence. I believe that if you give Him those few minutes, you are going to be amazed at what He does with them.