Best Speed Reading Courses Online (2026): 7 Honest Picks

Last updated: 29 September 2026 (every price, rating and course listing on this page checked live that day). Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

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Speed reading courses promise the same thing: read more in less time. Some of that promise holds up and some does not, and the difference matters when you are choosing where to spend $50 to $400. This guide ranks seven options that are live and open for enrollment in September 2026, explains what the research says a course can and cannot do for you, and gives you a simple way to measure whether a course worked.

The best speed reading courses at a glance

What the research says before you buy

The most thorough review of speed reading is Rayner, Schotter, Masson, Potter and Treiman (2016), published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Its conclusion, in the words of the Association for Psychological Science’s summary, is that “there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy — as readers spend less time on the material, they necessarily will have a poorer understanding of it.”

Three findings from that review shape how we ranked the courses on this page:

• Your eyes are not the bottleneck. Eye movements account for no more than 10% of reading time. The limit is how quickly you recognise words and work out what sentences mean, which is why eye-training drills alone cannot produce large gains.
• Skimming is real and useful. Prioritising the informative parts of a text and gliding over the rest works well when you only need the gist, such as when triaging reports or deciding which book chapters to read closely.
• Reading practice is what builds speed. The one thing the review found that raises overall reading ability is practice reading for comprehension, which grows your vocabulary and background knowledge.

For a baseline, Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies and 18,573 participants puts the average adult’s silent reading speed at 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, with most adults between 175 and 300 words per minute on non-fiction. Those numbers are lower than the figures you will see on most course sales pages, which is part of why the promised gains look so large.

How we chose these courses

We did not take every course end to end, and we do not claim to have. On 29 September 2026 we opened every course page and recorded the live price, length, rating, number of students, last update date and refund terms. We then compared each course’s promises against the research above, and favoured courses that teach comprehension, flexible reading speeds and skimming over those built on a single words-per-minute target.

We also removed two courses that earlier versions of this page recommended. Rev It Up Reading closed on 31 January 2025; its founder, Abby Marks Beale, now points readers to Spreeder instead. Speed Reading Simplified on Udemy is a one-hour course last updated in March 2016, which is too thin and too dated to recommend when better options exist.

One more thing you should know: we earn a commission if you buy through our links to Udemy, Mindvalley or Coursera. We earn nothing from Iris Reading, Legentas or Spreeder, and our top pick is one of them. The ranking reflects which course we would choose for our own reading, not which one pays.

The best speed reading courses in 2026

1. Iris Reading: Speed Reading Foundation (best overall)

Best for: most adults and students who want a structured course that treats comprehension as seriously as speed.

• Price on 29 September 2026: $79 (list price $160); the three-level bundle is $199
• 16 instructional videos, 5+ hours of content, certificate of completion, lifetime access
• Levels 2 and 3: Speed Reading Mastery ($117, 8+ hours) and Advanced Comprehension & Memory ($147, 13+ hours)
• Also sells live classes, one-to-one coaching and exam-focused courses for the ACT, SAT, LSAT, MCAT, the bar exam and the CFA

Iris Reading has run speed reading classes for years and says it has reached more than a million learners. The Foundation course replaces inefficient reading habits with guided drills, and it includes a full lesson on training for speed and understanding together. That emphasis is why it ranks first: the course is built around the skill the research says matters.

The course structure also suits the way people actually improve. Level 2 teaches you to change your pace to suit the material, and level 3 is about dense material and recall. You can stop after the Foundation course, which is enough for most people, or buy the bundle if you read heavily for work or study.

Before you buy, take Iris Reading’s free reading speed test so you have a baseline to measure against. See all Iris Reading courses and prices.

The catch: Iris does not state a refund policy on the course page, so check it at checkout. Its list prices are shown struck through next to much lower current prices, so judge it on the current price, not the discount.

2. 10X SUPERHUMAN Learning: Speed Reading & Memory Booster (best value)

Best for: readers on a budget who want a long, recently updated course that pairs speed reading with memory and focus.

• Instructor: Silviu Marisca
• Rated 4.7 from 11,316 ratings, with 100,551 students
• 42 sections, 229 lectures, 14 hours 5 minutes; last updated May 2026
• Covered by Udemy’s 30-day refund window

This is the most complete low-cost option we found, and the recent update matters in a category where many Udemy courses have not been touched in years. It combines reading technique with memory, focus and note-taking, which makes it closer to a study-skills course than a pure speed drill.

Its sales copy promises reading at 800 words per minute. Treat that as a ceiling for skimming familiar material, not a speed you will reach on a textbook with full understanding. The memory and note-taking sections are where most learners get lasting value.

The catch: At 14 hours it is long for a skill you could start practising after an evening. Work through the reading sections first and treat the rest as optional.

See 10X SUPERHUMAN Learning on Udemy →

3. Super Reading with Jim Kwik (Mindvalley)

Best for: people who already want a Mindvalley membership for its other programs.

• 5.7 hours of training, designed as a 21-day program
• Only available inside the Mindvalley membership: $399 a year (shown as $33.25 a month, billed annually)
• 15-day money-back guarantee on the membership
• Taught by Jim Kwik, who also teaches Mindvalley’s Superbrain program

Super Reading is built around one habit: the inner voice that sounds out every word as you read, which Mindvalley’s course page argues limits most people to the speed they can talk. Jim Kwik teaches you to rely on it less and then builds daily practice over 21 days.

Mindvalley says the program will at least double your reading speed in 21 days and calls that a guarantee. That is the seller’s claim, and it runs into the speed-and-comprehension trade-off described above. The honest case for Super Reading is that it builds a daily reading habit and teaches you to skim deliberately.

Value depends on the membership. At $399 a year, it only makes sense if you will use other Mindvalley programs too; our Mindvalley membership cost breakdown and full Mindvalley review cover that decision. If memory is your main goal, see our Jim Kwik Superbrain review.

The catch: You cannot buy Super Reading on its own, so a single speed reading course costs a full year of membership unless you cancel within the 15-day window.

See Super Reading on Mindvalley →

4. Become a SuperLearner 2: Learn Speed Reading & Boost Memory (Udemy)

Best for: learners who want speed reading and memory techniques in one short, widely taken course.

• Instructor: Jonathan Levi
• Rated 4.3 from 41,766 ratings, with 239,882 students, the most of any course here
• 5 hours of video; last updated September 2025

SuperLearner 2 is the most-taken course on this list, and as its title says it pairs speed reading with memory training. Its size means there are tens of thousands of past-student reviews you can read before you buy, and it was updated as recently as September 2025.

At 5 hours it is a manageable length, and it suits someone who wants both skills in one course rather than a long course on either.

The catch: Its 4.3 rating is the lowest among our Udemy picks. For speed reading alone, the 10X SUPERHUMAN course is better rated and more recently updated.

See SuperLearner 2 on Udemy →

5. Improve Your Reading Speed and Comprehension (Udemy)

Best for: readers who want a short, practical course and care as much about understanding as speed.

• Instructor: Ronald Johnson, a professional tutor
• Rated 4.7 from 2,226 ratings, with 7,937 students
• 2 hours of video; last updated May 2023

This is the shortest course we recommend, and its title reflects the right priority: speed and comprehension together. It covers both pleasure reading and academic reading, which makes it a sensible choice for students who need to get through assigned texts without losing the content.

If you only want to know whether speed reading is worth your time, this is the lowest-commitment way to find out.

The catch: It has not been updated since May 2023. The techniques do not date quickly, but you get less material than in the longer courses above.

See the course on Udemy →

6. Legentas online speed reading course

Best for: anyone who wants to try a guided program free before paying.

• Free trial: a reading speed test, the basics of speed reading and the first lesson
• Full course: 69 EUR at the student price or 129 EUR at the full price
• Legentas says the course takes about 20 hours

Legentas is an independent online course operated by Rozečti.se. Its free trial is the most generous we found: enough to test your speed and try a real lesson before deciding.

Legentas says the course teaches you to read more than twice as fast in 20 hours. As with every claim of that kind, measure your comprehension as well as your speed. See the Legentas course page for current prices.

The catch: It is priced in euros and is less established than Iris Reading. We have no affiliate relationship with Legentas and it is not on the networks we use.

7. Spreeder speed reading app

Best for: people who want a practice tool to use alongside a course, not instead of one.

• Free app, with lifetime access to the full version for $67
• 365-day satisfaction guarantee
• Made by eReflect, which has sold reading software since 2006

Spreeder shows text one word or a few words at a time at a speed you set, a technique called rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). It now also produces AI summaries of books and topics. Abby Marks Beale, whose Rev It Up Reading course closed in 2025, recommends it to her former students.

Use it for drills, not for reading you need to understand. The Rayner review found that RSVP-style presentation removes your ability to glance back at earlier words, which tends to make comprehension worse. A summary, however fast, is also not the same as reading the text. See the Spreeder site for current pricing.

The catch: Its marketing claims learning “30x faster” than older methods, which is not a claim the research supports. We have no affiliate relationship with Spreeder.

Free speed reading courses and tools

No free course we checked matches the paid options above for structure, but there are good free starting points. Measure your baseline first; everything else depends on it.

• Iris Reading free reading speed test: measure your words per minute before and after any course.
• Legentas free trial: a speed test, the basics and the first lesson of the full course.
• Spreeder free app: RSVP drills you can use for a few minutes a day.
• Your own reading: regular reading for understanding is the practice the research actually supports, and it costs nothing.

If your real goal is to learn faster rather than to read faster, Learning How to Learn on Coursera is a better investment of your time. Taught by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, it is one of Coursera’s most popular courses, with more than 4.1 million learners enrolled and a 4.8 rating, and it covers memory, focus and study habits grounded in how the brain learns. Our online study tips guide covers the same ground in brief.

How to choose a speed reading course

Four questions decide which course fits you:

• What do you read? Reports, email and news reward skimming, which every course here teaches. Textbooks, contracts and technical material reward careful reading, so favour a comprehension-first course such as Iris Reading or the Ronald Johnson course.
• Does it measure comprehension? A course that quizzes you on what you read is teaching a real skill. One that reports only words per minute is not.
• How much structure do you need? A 2-hour course suits someone testing the idea. A leveled program such as Iris Reading, or a long course like 10X SUPERHUMAN, suits someone committing to weeks of practice.
• What will it really cost? Udemy courses are the cheapest and carry a 30-day refund window. Iris Reading is a one-time payment with lifetime access. Mindvalley’s Super Reading is part of a $399 annual membership, so it only makes sense if you want the rest of the library.

See 10X SUPERHUMAN Learning → See the 2-hour Udemy course →

What speed reading courses actually teach

Most courses combine the same handful of techniques. Knowing what they are helps you judge a course from its curriculum and decide what to practise.

• Previewing. Scanning headings, the introduction and conclusions before you read, so you know where the important material is. This is the most reliable time-saver on any list.
• Skimming and scanning. Reading selectively for the gist, or hunting for a specific fact. The research supports both when you only need the gist.
• Reducing regressions. Cutting habitual re-reading of lines you already understood. Useful, but the research also shows that stopping yourself from ever going back hurts comprehension, so the goal is fewer unnecessary re-reads, not zero.
• Using a pacer. Guiding your eyes with a finger, pen or cursor to keep a steady rhythm and hold your attention.
• Reducing subvocalisation. Sounding out every word in your head. Courses teach you to lean on it less; check your comprehension when you try, because this is where the promised gains are largest and the evidence is thinnest.
• Flexible speed. Changing your pace to suit the material and your purpose. This is the skill the best courses emphasise, and the one that lasts.

Speed reading for timed exams

Many people look for a speed reading course because of a timed test: the reading sections of the ACT and SAT, the LSAT, the MCAT’s reading-heavy CARS section, or the bar exam. Iris Reading sells exam-specific courses for several of these, which tells you there is demand, but the research points to a narrower benefit than the marketing suggests.

On a timed reading test, what usually costs points is not raw words per minute but strategy: reading passages without a plan, re-reading lines you already understood and running out of time on the last questions. The techniques from a speed reading course that transfer best are previewing a passage’s structure, skimming for the main idea and reading the question-relevant parts carefully. Pushing your speed past the point where you understand the passage will cost more points than it saves.

If an exam is your goal, practise with official, timed materials first and treat a speed reading course as a supplement. Our ACT tips and tricks and best MCAT prep courses guides cover exam-specific strategy.

Who should skip a speed reading course

A speed reading course is poor value if most of what you read needs close attention: dense technical material, legal documents or anything you must remember in detail. It is also the wrong tool if the real problem is focus or time rather than reading speed; a course on attention or study habits, such as Learning How to Learn, will do more. And if you read well below the typical adult range of 175 to 300 words per minute, or find reading effortful, speak to a teacher or a reading specialist before buying a course, because the cause may be something a course is not designed to fix.

Speed reading and AI summaries

AI tools can now summarise a book or report in seconds, and some speed reading products, Spreeder among them, have added AI summaries. A summary is useful for deciding what to read, which is the same job skimming does. It is not a substitute for reading: you get someone else’s selection of the main points, without the examples, reasoning and detail that make the material stick. Use AI to triage, then read the parts that matter carefully.

A 4-week plan to get the most from any course

• Week 1: measure your baseline speed and write down, in a few sentences, what you remember from a test passage. Start the course.
• Week 2: practise previewing and a pacer for 15 to 20 minutes a day on material you actually need to read.
• Week 3: practise skimming on low-stakes reading such as news and email, and careful reading on important material. Notice when each is right.
• Week 4: re-test your speed and your recall on a new passage of similar difficulty. If speed rose and recall held, the course worked for you.

If your recall dropped, slow down. Reading 20% faster with the same understanding is a real, lasting gain; reading three times faster and remembering little is not.

Our verdict

Iris Reading’s Speed Reading Foundation is the best speed reading course for most people because it treats comprehension as the goal and gives you a clear path to go further. 10X SUPERHUMAN Learning on Udemy is the best value, and Super Reading is a good choice only if you want the rest of the Mindvalley library. Whatever you choose, measure your comprehension as well as your speed, and be sceptical of any course that promises you can triple your speed without losing understanding. For other skills worth learning online, see our best online courses by subject and best business courses.

See the best-value speed reading course →

Frequently asked questions

Do speed reading courses actually work?

Partly. A 2016 review of the research by Keith Rayner and colleagues in Psychological Science in the Public Interest found a trade-off between speed and accuracy: when you spend less time on a text, you understand less of it. Courses can help you skim well, stop re-reading out of habit and choose your speed to suit the material. What they cannot do is let you read several times faster with full comprehension.

How fast does the average person read?

About 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, according to Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies with 18,573 participants. Most adults fall between 175 and 300 words per minute on non-fiction.

What is the best speed reading course?

For most people, Iris Reading’s Speed Reading Foundation course ($79 on 29 September 2026): it is built around comprehension and flexible reading speeds rather than a single speed target, and it leads into two further levels if you want them. On a smaller budget, 10X SUPERHUMAN Learning on Udemy is rated 4.7 from 11,316 reviews and was updated in May 2026.

Are there free speed reading courses?

There are free starting points rather than complete free courses. Legentas offers a free trial with a reading speed test, the basics and its first lesson; Spreeder has a free app; and Iris Reading runs a free online reading speed test. Use one of them to measure your baseline before paying for anything.

How long does it take to learn speed reading?

The courses on this list take between 2 and 25 hours to complete, and programs such as Mindvalley’s Super Reading are designed around 21 days of daily practice. Whatever you choose, measure comprehension as well as words per minute, or you will not know whether the speed you gained is worth anything.

Does speed reading hurt comprehension?

Pushing speed past your natural rate usually does. The Rayner review found that readers who spend less time on the material understand it less well, and that eye movements account for no more than 10% of reading time, so training your eyes alone cannot deliver large gains. Skimming is the honest exception: it works well when you only need the gist.

Is there a speed reading course for kids?

Most speed reading courses are designed for adults and older students. For children, reading fluency, vocabulary and plenty of reading practice matter far more than speed drills, and the research points the same way for adults. Iris Reading runs workshops for schools if a group program is what you need.

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