Reading silently, most adults can get through the whole Bible in about 51 hours. Listening takes longer: the complete English recordings in Bible Garden run 66 to 84 hours, depending on the narrator. To finish in a year, three or four chapters a day is enough — about 8–9 minutes of reading or 11–14 minutes of audio. Below you'll find a calculator for your own pace, the length of each recording, and ways to slow down or speed up in the free Bible Garden app for iPhone and iPad.
The short answer
| How you read | Whole Bible | Old Testament | New Testament |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silently | about 51 hours | about 39 hours | about 12 hours |
| Listening | 66–84 hours | 51–66 hours | 15–19 hours |
The Old Testament is roughly three times as long as the New. For the number of chapters and minutes of audio in each of the 66 books, see "Books of the Bible in Order."
You'll often see "about 70 hours" to read the Bible and "70–90 hours" to listen. Those are mostly estimates: the King James Version's roughly 783,000 words divided by an assumed 150–200 words per minute. Real recordings vary with the translation and the reader. Alexander Scourby's well-known KJV reading runs about 72 hours (Wikipedia); the modern-translation recordings in Bible Garden run 66–84 hours.
Calculator: how long it will take you
The table shows how long the Bible takes at 1 to 10 chapters a day. For your own pace, use the calculator below it: choose what you're reading — the whole Bible, the Old Testament, or the New Testament — and how many chapters a day you want to read or the date you want to finish by. It shows your finish date or the chapters a day you need. Pick a narrator to see roughly how many minutes a day that is and how speed, pauses, or Multi Reading in the app change it.
| Chapters per day | Bible | OT | NT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 years 3 months | 2 years 7 months | 9 months |
| 2 | 1 year 8 months | 1 year 3 months | 4 months |
| 3 | 1 year 1 month | 10 months | 3 months |
| 4 | 10 months | 8 months | 2 months |
| 5 | 8 months | 6 months | 2 months |
| 10 | 4 months | 3 months | 1 month |
A chapter-by-chapter Bible plan
Recording lengths measured by fully decoding MP3 files on .
If you'd rather not plan it yourself, use the ready-made "Bible in a Year" calendar with dates and a printable version.
How long each recording runs
| Narrator | Translation | Whole Bible | Minutes a day for a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Souer | Berean Standard Bible (BSB) | 69 hours | 11 |
| David | Berean Standard Bible (BSB) | 79 hours | 13 |
| Winfred Henson | World English Bible, US edition (WEBUS) | 84 hours | 14 |
| Narrator uncredited | World English Bible, British edition (WEBBE) | 66 hours | 11 |
All four recordings cover the 66 books. These recordings take about 30–66% longer than the silent-reading estimate because a narrator speaks every word and pauses between verses: Bob Souer reads about 175 words a minute, Winfred Henson about 148. The pace that suits you is best chosen by ear: before you pick a narrator, the app plays a voice sample, John 1:1–3. More about each one in "Audio Bible narrators."
How to slow down or speed up
Speed. In Bible Garden, normal playback supports 0.6–2× in 0.2 increments; each Multi Reading step supports 0.5–2.5× in 0.1 increments. At 2×, Bob Souer's recording takes about 35 hours — less than reading silently.
Pauses. You can add a pause after every verse, paragraph, or section — for a set time or until you tap Play — so there's room to think about what you heard. A 2-second pause after every verse adds about 17 hours to a full recording, or almost 3 minutes a day on a one-year plan. Pauses don't speed up with the audio: 2 seconds stay 2 seconds even at 2×.
Multi Reading is Bible Garden's key feature. Each verse plays in several translations in a row — in one language or several — and the screen shows the same verse in every translation you picked. For example, BSB read by Bob Souer, then the same verse in WEBUS read by Winfred Henson. At 1×, with a 2-second pause after each reading, this takes about 177 hours for the whole Bible, or 29 minutes a day for a year. You can also pair English with Russian or Ukrainian; see "Bilingual Bible App."
Bible Garden is free, with no ads or in-app purchases. It currently runs on iPhone and iPad; listening on the website and an Android version are in our plans.
How we measured. Audio times are the full length of the app's MP3 files, measured on October 4, 2026, at normal speed. Multi Reading estimates use aligned verse segments plus the configured pauses. Silent reading uses the BSB's word count (about 726,000 words) and 238 words per minute, the average for adults reading non-fiction silently in English in a meta-analysis by Brysbaert (2019).
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read the whole Bible?
About 51 hours reading silently. Listening takes 66 to 84 hours with the English recordings in Bible Garden, depending on the narrator.
How long is the audio Bible?
In Bible Garden, Bob Souer's BSB recording runs about 69 hours, David's BSB about 79 hours, Winfred Henson's WEBUS about 84 hours, and the uncredited WEBBE recording about 66 hours. Other audio Bibles differ; Alexander Scourby's KJV runs about 72 hours.
How many minutes a day does it take to read the Bible in a year?
Three or four chapters a day: about 8–9 minutes reading silently, or 11–14 minutes listening, depending on the narrator.
How long does it take to read the New Testament?
About 12 hours reading silently. Listening takes 15 to 19 hours with the English recordings in Bible Garden.
Can I listen to the Bible faster?
Yes. In Bible Garden, normal playback supports 0.6–2× in 0.2 increments, and each Multi Reading step supports 0.5–2.5× in 0.1 increments. At 1.6×, Bob Souer's recording takes about 43 hours, and at 2× about 35 hours.