{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "id": "users-read-20-percent-of-words",
  "slug": "users-read-20-percent-of-words",
  "url": "https://groundedkit.com/claims/users-read-20-percent-of-words/",
  "api_url": "https://groundedkit.com/api/claims/users-read-20-percent-of-words.json",
  "claim": "Users read only about 20% of the words on a web page",
  "commonly_cited_as": "\"People only read 20% of the text on a page\"",
  "verdict": "verified",
  "verdict_definition": "Primary source found; it says the same thing, the scope matches, and it is reasonably current.",
  "confidence": "medium",
  "rating": {
    "value": 5,
    "best": 5,
    "worst": 1
  },
  "origin": {
    "publisher": "Nielsen Norman Group (Jakob Nielsen)",
    "title": "How Little Do Users Read?",
    "year": "2008"
  },
  "quote": "On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.",
  "method": "Calculation from page-view logs of a small group of experienced users (Weinreich et al., ACM Transactions on the Web); average page 593 words.",
  "drift": [
    "Date: 2008 desktop-era data",
    "Type: an upper-bound estimate from time on page, not eye-tracking of reading"
  ],
  "interest": "NN/g sells UX training.",
  "safe_rephrasing": "NN/g estimated in 2008 that users have time to read at most 28% of a page's words, about 20% in practice.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "NN/g: How Little Do Users Read? (2008)",
      "url": "https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-little-do-users-read/",
      "primary": true
    }
  ],
  "kind": "stat_check",
  "as_of": "2008",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-16",
  "stale": false,
  "date_reviewed": "2026-10-16",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}