How to read the Bible in 90 days: the real daily load

Reading the Bible in 90 days takes about 13 chapters, or 35 to 45 minutes, a day. The honest numbers, a full schedule, Catholic figures and how to catch up.

Published 13 min read

The short answer

Reading the 66-book Protestant Bible in 90 days means 1,189 chapters at about 13 a day, with 14 on 19 of the days. That is roughly 8,300 words a day: 35 minutes of silent reading at the average adult pace and 42 at a relaxed one, so plan on about 45 minutes. In all it comes to about 52 to 62 hours. The 73-book Catholic Bible asks nearly 15 chapters, or 40 to 50 minutes, a day.

In this guide
  1. What it takes to read the Bible in 90 days
  2. Where the 90-day plan comes from
  3. How many minutes a day does a 90-day plan take?
  4. A 90-day Bible reading schedule, week by week
  5. Cover to cover or chronological in 90 days?
  6. Is 90 days too fast to read the Bible?
  7. If you fall behind on a 90-day plan
  8. The 90-day schedule, day by day
  9. Questions people ask
  10. Sources

Ninety days sits between the year-long plans and the month-long challenges: fast enough to keep the whole story in view, slow enough to fit around a working day. To read the Bible in 90 days is still a real commitment: three-quarters of an hour, every day, for three months. A schedule tells you what to read on each of those days, but rarely how long each one will take, so we measured that too, from our own word count of the text.

  • 13.2chapters a day for the 66-book Bible
  • 35–45 minof reading a day, depending on pace
  • 14.8chapters a day for the 73-book Catholic Bible
  • 52 hoursof reading in all, at the average pace

What it takes to read the Bible in 90 days

The Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters, so 90 days asks for 13.2 chapters a day: 13 on most days and 14 on 19 of them. By our count of the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation, that averages about 8,300 words a day.

At 238 words a minute, the average adult speed for silent reading in a large review of reading research, a day takes about 35 minutes. At a relaxed 200 it takes about 42, and read aloud about 46. Over the whole 90 days it adds up to about 52 to 62 hours of reading.

Here is how 90 days compares with the timelines on either side of it, with minutes at about 3.3 a chapter, a little slower than 200 words a minute, which leaves room for the long chapters:

To finish inChapters a dayAbout
60 days19.865 min a day
90 days13.244 min a day
100 days11.939 min a day
4 months9.732 min a day
6 months6.522 min a day

1,189 chapters in the Protestant Bible, divided by the days. Minutes assume about 3.3 minutes a chapter, a relaxed reading pace; chapters vary from a few verses to 176.

Ten more days take more than a chapter off every day, and a month more takes off three and a half. Three calendar months run 89 to 92 days, so reading the Bible in three months is the same load, give or take a day.

In a Catholic, Orthodox or Ethiopian Bible

Wider canons have more chapters, so the same 90 days asks for more each day. The 73-book Catholic Bible has 1,334 chapters: 14.8 a day, which works out to 15 on 74 days and 14 on the other 16. That is about 9,500 words, or 40 minutes of silent reading at the average pace and 47 at a relaxed one.

To finish inProtestant (1,189)Catholic (1,334)With Apocrypha (1,360)Orthodox (1,386)Ethiopian (1,564)
90 days13.214.815.115.417.4
100 days11.913.313.613.915.6
4 months9.710.911.111.412.8

Each canon’s chapter total divided by the days.

If your Bible has 73 books, our Catholic Bible reading plan lays out all of them at gentler paces as well.

Where the 90-day plan comes from

One of the best-known 90-day plans began with Ted Cooper, a Houston businessman. Christianity Today reported in 2006 that he and his wife had been agnostics who began going to church for their children’s sake. Cooper reasoned that if there was a God, he would want him to finish the book once he had started it. He read the whole Bible in three months and, in his words, “became a Christian in the Old Testament.”

He created the Bible in 90 Days program in 2002, according to its listing on Bible.com. It asks for 12 pages a day of a large-print NIV, which Christianity Today put at between 45 minutes and an hour, with classes at church or in a small group alongside. Zondervan ran its website, and by Cooper’s count at the time, more than 1,000 people had gone through it and about 54 percent had finished.

The Bible in 90 Days is the name of that program. This guide uses the phrase only to describe a pace; the schedule below is our own, in whole chapters, and has no connection to it.

How many minutes a day does a 90-day plan take?

At ordinary reading speeds a 90-day plan takes 35 to 45 minutes a day, and the full range is wider than that, because it depends on how fast you read. Here is the average day at five reading speeds, by our count of the World English Bible:

Reading speed Protestant Bible (8,300 words a day) Catholic Bible (9,500 words a day)
150 words a minute, slow and careful 56 min 63 min
183, reading aloud at the average rate 46 min 52 min
200, relaxed silent reading 42 min 47 min
238, average silent reading 35 min 40 min
280, brisk 30 min 34 min

That is why published figures disagree. A printed 90-day schedule Lifeway publishes for the Christian Standard Bible promises the whole Bible “by investing as little as 30 minutes a day,” with two grace days in its 90, so the reading fits into 88. By our count, 88 half-hours means reading about 284 words a minute: possible for a quick reader, but well above the 238 average. We counted the World English Bible rather than the CSB, and translations do vary in length (by our count the King James Version is about 5% longer), but for 30 minutes a day to be enough at the average speed, the text would have to be about a sixth shorter than the one we counted. Christianity Today’s 45 minutes to an hour for the original program is the more generous estimate, and closer to what a slower, more careful reader will find.

Why some days take 11 minutes and others nearly an hour

Equal chapters do not make equal days. Chapters run from two verses (Psalm 117) to 176 (Psalm 119), so a schedule of 13 chapters a day swings widely. In the schedule below, the lightest day is Psalms 131 to 143, about 2,650 words or 11 minutes, and the heaviest is 1 Kings 1 to 13, almost 13,900 words or 58 minutes. The two weeks that hold the Psalms average about 17 minutes a day; the week from Malachi through the Gospel of John, almost 50.

Schedules measured in pages, like the original 12 pages a day, even this out by splitting chapters: Lifeway’s first day runs from Genesis 1:1 to 16:16, and its second from 17:1 to 28:19. Balanced by words instead of chapters, our count keeps every day between about 7,500 and 9,100 words (32 to 38 minutes), but the days then range from 7 chapters to 36.

Whole chapters are easier to find your place in and to mark off; even days are easier to plan around. Neither is wrong, and it helps to know which kind of schedule you have before the long days arrive.

A 90-day Bible reading schedule, week by week

The schedule below takes the Protestant Bible cover to cover in whole chapters, about 92 a week. The minutes are each week’s average day at 238 words a minute, so the long weeks are visible in advance: the Law and the histories in weeks 1 to 4 run 40 to 47 minutes a day, the Psalms in weeks 6 and 7 about 17, and the Gospels in week 11 almost 50.

Week Days From To Chapters Minutes a day, on average
1 1–7 Genesis 1 Leviticus 2 92 40
2 8–14 Leviticus 3 Deuteronomy 32 93 47
3 15–21 Deuteronomy 33 2 Samuel 10 92 41
4 22–28 2 Samuel 11 2 Chronicles 3 93 47
5 29–35 2 Chronicles 4 Job 26 92 33
6 36–42 Job 27 Psalm 77 93 17
7 43–49 Psalm 78 Proverbs 19 92 17
8 50–56 Proverbs 20 Isaiah 61 93 28
9 57–63 Isaiah 62 Ezekiel 30 92 41
10 64–70 Ezekiel 31 Zechariah 14 93 32
11 71–77 Malachi 1 John 20 92 49
12 78–84 John 21 Colossians 3 93 35
13 85–90 Colossians 4 Revelation 22 79 26

The full day-by-day list is at the end of this page. If you would like spare days, as some printed schedules build in, reading in 88 days means 13.5 chapters a day and leaves two for a sick day or a full one. To start on a particular date or use a wider canon, the reading plan generator builds the same kind of plan around your own days.

Cover to cover or chronological in 90 days?

Either works in 90 days, and the daily load stays at about 13 chapters, because a different order reads the same 1,189 chapters. What changes is where the hard stretches fall. Straight through, Leviticus arrives at the end of the first week, Psalms on day 37 and the first Gospel not until day 71: the Old Testament fills the first 70 days and the New Testament the last 20.

Two other routes are worth weighing:

  • Both testaments each day. Split the way the chapters fall, that is about 10 Old Testament chapters and 3 from the New each day (929 and 260 chapters over 90 days). The New Testament then runs alongside the whole sprint instead of waiting for the end.
  • Chronological. A chronological plan puts the books, and often chapters within them, in the order the events happened. It is still about 13 chapters a day. Our guide to reading the Bible chronologically compares the two ways of doing it.

Is 90 days too fast to read the Bible?

For some purposes it is, and for others the speed is the point. Thirteen chapters a day keeps the whole story in view: the promise to Abraham is still fresh when the kings fall, and the prophets come weeks rather than months after the histories they answer. William Proctor, who edited a fast-reading edition of the Bible, told Christianity Today: “If you focus only on individual verses or chapters, you don’t get a sense of the broad sweep and trends of the entire work.”

What a sprint gives up is time with any one passage. In the same article Richard Schultz, an Old Testament professor at Wheaton College, said the Bible “is intended to be read slowly, studied, memorized, and meditated upon.” A quick reading and a slow one are different kinds of reading, and nothing stops anyone from doing both. Ninety days tends to suit a reader who has a regular three-quarters of an hour and wants the shape of the whole; it suits close study less well.

If 45 minutes a day is more than your days hold, the middle roads are close by:

  • 100 days: 11.9 chapters, about 39 minutes a day.
  • Four months: 9.7 chapters, about 32 minutes.
  • Six months: 6.5 chapters, about 22 minutes.
  • The New Testament alone in 90 days: just under 3 chapters, roughly 8 to 10 minutes a day. How long the New Testament takes has the rest of those numbers.

If you fall behind on a 90-day plan

A missed day on a 90-day plan is 13 chapters, roughly 35 to 45 minutes of reading. Doubling up the next day means 26 chapters, well over an hour, which is a lot to ask of the day after a busy one. There are gentler ways to absorb it:

  • Let the finish move. A day missed is a day added: the last chapter of Revelation lands on day 91 instead of day 90, and nothing else changes.
  • Spread it out. Missing day 30 leaves 806 chapters for the last 60 days, which is 13.4 a day instead of 13.2, or about one extra chapter every four or five days.
  • Change the timeline. Stretching the plan to 100 days or four months in all brings the daily load down to roughly 12 or 10 chapters, and every chapter already read still counts.

Our guide to catching up on a reading plan has more on this, for plans of any length.

The 90-day schedule, day by day

Here is every day of the cover-to-cover schedule in whole chapters, with the minutes each takes at 238 words a minute by our count of the World English Bible. The 14-chapter days are spread through the plan, one or two a week.

Day Read Chapters Minutes
1 Genesis 1–13 13 30
2 Genesis 14–26 13 39
3 Genesis 27–40 14 46
4 Genesis 41 – Exodus 3 13 42
5 Exodus 4–16 13 43
6 Exodus 17–29 13 42
7 Exodus 30 – Leviticus 2 13 41
8 Leviticus 3–16 14 54
9 Leviticus 17 – Numbers 2 13 48
10 Numbers 3–15 13 52
11 Numbers 16–28 13 43
12 Numbers 29 – Deuteronomy 6 14 51
13 Deuteronomy 7–19 13 38
14 Deuteronomy 20–32 13 45
15 Deuteronomy 33 – Joshua 11 13 40
16 Joshua 12–24 13 38
17 Judges 1–14 14 49
18 Judges 15 – 1 Samuel 2 13 43
19 1 Samuel 3–15 13 39
20 1 Samuel 16–28 13 45
21 1 Samuel 29 – 2 Samuel 10 13 34
22 2 Samuel 11–24 14 55
23 1 Kings 1–13 13 58
24 1 Kings 14 – 2 Kings 4 13 52
25 2 Kings 5–17 13 48
26 2 Kings 18 – 1 Chronicles 5 13 43
27 1 Chronicles 6–19 14 40
28 1 Chronicles 20 – 2 Chronicles 3 13 34
29 2 Chronicles 4–16 13 33
30 2 Chronicles 17–29 13 38
31 2 Chronicles 30 – Ezra 7 14 45
32 Ezra 8 – Nehemiah 10 13 41
33 Nehemiah 11 – Esther 10 13 34
34 Job 1–13 13 23
35 Job 14–26 13 20
36 Job 27–40 14 27
37 Job 41 – Psalm 11 13 14
38 Psalms 12–24 13 14
39 Psalms 25–37 13 18
40 Psalms 38–50 13 15
41 Psalms 51–64 14 14
42 Psalms 65–77 13 18
43 Psalms 78–90 13 20
44 Psalms 91–103 13 12
45 Psalms 104–117 14 19
46 Psalms 118–130 13 16
47 Psalms 131–143 13 11
48 Psalm 144 – Proverbs 6 13 17
49 Proverbs 7–19 13 25
50 Proverbs 20 – Ecclesiastes 2 14 29
51 Ecclesiastes 3 – Song of Songs 3 13 22
52 Song of Songs 4 – Isaiah 8 13 25
53 Isaiah 9–21 13 25
54 Isaiah 22–34 13 30
55 Isaiah 35–48 14 36
56 Isaiah 49–61 13 27
57 Isaiah 62 – Jeremiah 8 13 38
58 Jeremiah 9–21 13 35
59 Jeremiah 22–34 13 46
60 Jeremiah 35–48 14 40
61 Jeremiah 49 – Ezekiel 4 13 46
62 Ezekiel 5–17 13 37
63 Ezekiel 18–30 13 45
64 Ezekiel 31–44 14 51
65 Ezekiel 45 – Daniel 9 13 51
66 Daniel 10 – Hosea 10 13 26
67 Hosea 11 – Amos 6 13 24
68 Amos 7 – Micah 5 13 22
69 Micah 6 – Zechariah 1 14 28
70 Zechariah 2–14 13 23
71 Malachi 1 – Matthew 9 13 32
72 Matthew 10–22 13 45
73 Matthew 23 – Mark 7 13 51
74 Mark 8 – Luke 5 14 57
75 Luke 6–18 13 55
76 Luke 19 – John 7 13 53
77 John 8–20 13 47
78 John 21 – Acts 12 13 44
79 Acts 13–26 14 48
80 Acts 27 – Romans 11 13 36
81 Romans 12 – 1 Corinthians 8 13 27
82 1 Corinthians 9 – 2 Corinthians 5 13 32
83 2 Corinthians 6 – Galatians 6 14 29
84 Ephesians 1 – Colossians 3 13 29
85 Colossians 4 – 1 Timothy 4 13 19
86 1 Timothy 5 – Hebrews 3 13 21
87 Hebrews 4 – James 3 13 30
88 James 4 – 1 John 4 14 28
89 1 John 5 – Revelation 9 13 26
90 Revelation 10–22 13 29

If Revelation 22 lands on day 104 rather than day 90, every chapter before it was still read.

Questions people ask

Is it possible to read the whole Bible in 3 months?

Yes. Three calendar months run 89 to 92 days, so it is the same load as a 90-day plan: about 13 chapters a day for the 66-book Bible, or 35 to 45 minutes of reading. It takes a fixed block of time every day rather than any special skill, and a single missed day is 13 chapters to absorb somewhere.

Who created the Bible in 90 Days plan?

Ted Cooper, a Houston businessman, created the Bible in 90 Days program in 2002. Christianity Today reported that he and his wife had been agnostics, and that he read the whole Bible in three months before turning the idea into a program: 12 pages a day of a large-print NIV, with classes at church alongside. Zondervan ran the program's website.

How many chapters a day for a Catholic Bible in 90 days?

The 73-book Catholic Bible has 1,334 chapters, so 90 days means 14.8 a day: 15 chapters on 74 days and 14 on the other 16. By our count that is about 9,500 words a day, or 40 minutes of silent reading at the average pace and 47 at a relaxed one. The Orthodox Bible asks 15.4 chapters a day, and the Ethiopian 17.4.

Can you read the Bible chronologically in 90 days?

Yes. A chronological plan puts the same chapters in the order the events happened, so the load stays at about 13 chapters, or 35 to 45 minutes, a day for the Protestant Bible. If your chronological plan is laid out for a year, reading four of its days at a time comes close, since 365 days divided by 90 is just over four.

Is reading the Bible in 90 days too fast?

It depends on what you want from the reading. Ninety days keeps the whole story in view, so the prophets come weeks rather than months after the histories they answer. It leaves little time to stay with any one passage. If 45 minutes a day is more than your days hold, 100 days is 11.9 chapters a day and six months 6.5.

Sources

  1. Bible in 90 Days, reading plan listing on Bible.com
  2. Christianity Today (March 2006): Spiritual fast food
  3. The Bible in 90 Days reading schedule (CSB), Lifeway
  4. Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047.
  5. World English Bible, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
  6. King James Version, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org

Written by

Jonathan Müller makes BibleRing, a Bible reading tracker for iPhone and iPad, and writes these guides from the same record of the canon the app counts against: every book, chapter and canon in them is the app’s own.

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