Which Bible reading plan is best? The classic plans side by side

The short answer

The best Bible reading plan is the one whose daily load and shape you can keep. Any plan that reads the Bible once in a year, cover to cover or both testaments together, is about 3.3 chapters, or 9 to 10 minutes, a day. M'Cheyne's 1842 plan is about 4.4 chapters and reads the New Testament and Psalms twice. The Navigators plan reads about 4 chapters on 25 days a month. A 5-day plan is 4.6 on weekdays, and Horner's system is ten chapters, 25 to 30 minutes, every day.

In this guide

1. What makes one Bible reading plan different from another
2. The classic Bible reading plans compared
3. Plans that read the whole Bible once in a year
4. Plans that read some parts more than once
5. Plans with days off: the Navigators and 5-day plans
6. Which Bible reading plan is best for you?
7. Bible reading plans for a Catholic, Orthodox or Ethiopian Bible
8. What if the plan you chose stops working?
9. Questions people ask
10. Sources

Ask which Bible reading plan is best and you will mostly hear someone’s favorite. A more useful answer sets the plans side by side and asks what each does to an ordinary day: how much it hands you, in what order, what it reads twice, and what happens when a day goes missing. We worked those figures out for eight classic plans, from each plan’s own published layout and our word count of a public-domain translation, so they compare like for like.

• 3.3chapters a day to read the Bible once in a year
• 4.4chapters a day on M'Cheyne's plan
• 10chapters a day on Horner's system
• 25readings a month on the Navigators plan

What makes one Bible reading plan different from another

Four things separate the plans, and the best one for you is the one whose four answers you can live with.

• The daily load. From about three chapters a day, for any plan that reads the Bible once in a year, to Horner’s ten. In time, from about 9 minutes to about 30.
• The order. Straight through, a mix of the testaments each day, or rearranged into the order events happened.
• What comes round more than once. Most plans read every chapter once. M’Cheyne’s reads the New Testament and Psalms twice a year, and Horner’s reads Proverbs and Acts about once a month.
• Room for a missed day. Some plans give every date of the year a reading; others leave days free on purpose.

There is no shortage of choice. Ligonier Ministries’ list of reading plans, published in December 2025, carries 22 of them, and most of the plans below are on it.

The classic Bible reading plans compared

The table gives each plan’s daily load for the 66-book Protestant Bible (1,189 chapters). The minutes are silent reading at the average adult pace of 238 words a minute and at a relaxed 200, from our word count of the World English Bible.

Two things stand out. Every plan that reads the Bible once in a year lands near 3.3 chapters a day, whatever its order; the plans that ask more of a day are the ones that reread, or that leave days free and so pack the reading into fewer of them. And the minutes vary more than the chapters suggest, because chapters vary: by our count a Gospel chapter averages about 900 words and a psalm about 275.

Plans that read the whole Bible once in a year

Cover to cover, Old and New together and chronological plans all read the 1,189 chapters once, at about 3.3 a day and 10 minutes. What changes is when you reach each part, and how much there is to keep track of.

Cover to cover

Genesis on the first day, Revelation on the last, and nothing to follow but your Bible’s contents page. Every book is read whole and in its place. The cost is the wait: at an even pace, February goes to Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and Matthew does not begin until day 286. Our guide to reading the Bible in a year gives the date each hard stretch arrives.

Old and New together

Each day takes some of each testament, usually two or three Old Testament chapters and, most days, one from the New. A Gospel arrives on the first day, and spread evenly the four Gospels are finished by early May. Many published plans take this shape: Ligonier’s list alone has several with one Old Testament and one New Testament reading a day, among them the Tabletalk plan. The only cost is a second bookmark.

Chronological

A chronological plan rearranges the Bible into the order its events happened. It reads Job beside Genesis, psalms inside David’s life and Paul’s letters inside Acts, which means cutting books into passages, so you follow the plan’s list rather than your Bible. Plans also disagree on where some books belong: the Back to the Bible plan that ESV publishes reads Job after Genesis 11, and Tyndale’s chronological reading guide reads it after Genesis 50. And because the New Testament comes last, the Gospels wait almost as long as they do cover to cover: Blue Letter Bible’s one-year chronological plan reaches its first Gospel reading on day 274.

“Chronological” sometimes means the order the books were written instead, which keeps each book whole. Our guide to reading the Bible chronologically sets out both.

Plans that read some parts more than once

Rereading is the point of the next three plans: the Gospels, the Psalms or Proverbs come round often enough to stay familiar. M’Cheyne’s and Horner’s ask more time a day for it; the third is a short companion to another plan.

The M’Cheyne plan

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, minister of St. Peter’s in Dundee, dated his calendar December 30, 1842. It gives four readings a day, two headed “Family” and two “Secret”, meaning private; on January 1 they are Genesis 1, Matthew 1, Ezra 1 and Acts 1. His preface puts the result in one line: “The Old Testament once, the New Testament and Psalms twice.”

By our count that is about 1,599 chapter readings in a year, or about 4.4 a day: roughly 2,650 words, 11 to 13 minutes. Some days carry part of a chapter (Psalm 119 is read over seven days), so the figure is an average. Every date has its four readings, with no free days, and Ligonier gives the plan’s length as one or two years; taking the two family columns one year and the two secret ones the next is about 2.2 chapters a day. Our guide to the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan goes through the calendar in more detail.

It suits readers who want variety every day and the New Testament more than once, and households: the family columns were written to be read together.

Professor Grant Horner’s system

Horner’s system is ten chapters a day, one from each of ten lists, and each list starts over when it ends. The lists are the Gospels (89 chapters), Genesis to Deuteronomy (187), Romans to Colossians with Hebrews (78), 1 Thessalonians to Revelation without Hebrews (65), Job, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs (62), Psalms (150), Proverbs (31), Joshua to Esther (249), Isaiah to Malachi (250) and Acts (28).

Because the lists differ in length, they drift apart and the combinations keep changing. Over a year, Proverbs comes round about 12 times and Acts 13, the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, and the history books and the prophets about one and a half times. The longest list takes 250 days, so by day 250 you have read every chapter of the Bible at least once. There is no finish line: the system simply carries on.

Horner writes that an average reader “can usually do this in about an hour a day” and that many report getting through the ten chapters in 35 to 40 minutes. By our count an average day is about 6,050 words, which is about 25 minutes at 238 words a minute and 30 at 200. Our guide to Horner’s Bible reading system lays out the lists and how often each comes round.

It suits readers with half an hour a day who like momentum and breadth more than lingering over a passage.

Psalms and Proverbs in a month

This one is not a plan for the whole Bible but a companion to one. Five psalms and one chapter of Proverbs a day reads both books every month. Billy Graham kept this habit for years, alongside his other Bible reading, and wrote: “By reading five Psalms and one chapter of Proverbs daily, you will be able to read them through each month.”

Over a 31-day month that averages about 1,800 words a day, 7½ to 9 minutes. How the psalms are divided matters, though. The common method of adding 30 (Psalms 1, 31, 61, 91 and 121 on the 1st) is easy to remember but uneven: the 29th’s five psalms, Psalm 119 among them, take about 16 minutes, the 3rd’s about 3½. Our guide to reading the Psalms in a month compares the ways of dividing them.

Plans with days off: the Navigators and 5-day plans

Some plans are built around the days that go missing. They read the Bible once in a year, but over fewer reading days, so each one carries a little more.

The Navigators (Discipleship Journal) plan

The Navigators Bible Reading Plan, also known as the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan, reads from four places each day: the Gospels, starting at Matthew 1; Acts to Revelation; Psalm 1 onward through the wisdom books to Job; and the rest of the Old Testament, from Genesis 1 and 2. The plan explains its design plainly: “To prevent the frustration of falling behind, which most of us tend to do when following a Bible reading plan, each month of this plan gives you only twenty-five readings.”

That makes 300 reading days and about 4 chapters on each, roughly 2,500 words or 10½ to 12½ minutes. The three to six days left each month are for catching up or for rest, and the plan can start on any day of the year. With 89 Gospel chapters spread over 300 days, the Gospel reading is often part of a chapter: the first day’s is Matthew 1:1 to 17. For a slower pace, the plan suggests reading “the gospels and the wisdom books this year, and the other two categories next year.” Our guide to the Navigators Bible reading plan goes through it in more detail.

5-day plans

Read five days a week and a year has 260 reading days. The Protestant Bible’s 1,189 chapters then come to 4.6 a reading day, about 2,900 words, or 12 to 14 minutes, with the weekends open.

The Five Day Bible Reading Program, a free schedule, was designed around one problem, which its FAQ describes: “If you ever miss a day you have to read double the next day and it really adds up from there.” Its 2026 schedule opens with Genesis 1 and 2, Psalm 19 and Mark 1, and places the Old Testament readings “as chronologically as possible”. For the New Testament alone, the Navigators’ 5x5x5 plan reads its 260 chapters one a weekday, about five minutes a day. Our guide to the 5-day Bible reading plan works the numbers for every canon.

These suit readers who expect some days to go missing and would rather the plan expected it too.

Which Bible reading plan is best for you?

For a first time through the whole Bible, a one-year plan that reads both testaments each day is the gentlest choice: the same 10 minutes as cover to cover, with a Gospel from the first day. After that, it comes down to what you want from the year.

• The fewest moving parts: cover to cover, with one bookmark and your Bible’s own order.
• The story in sequence: a chronological plan, if you are happy to follow a printed list.
• Variety and the New Testament twice: M’Cheyne, at about 4.4 chapters a day.
• Room for the days that go missing: the Navigators plan or a 5-day plan.
• Breadth and speed, with half an hour to give: Horner’s ten chapters.
• Something for prayer beside your main plan: five psalms and a proverb.

If ten minutes a day is more than you want to promise yet, start smaller: a Gospel, or the New Testament at a chapter a day. Our Bible reading plan for beginners begins there, and the reading plan calculator builds a plan of your own at any pace.

Bible reading plans for a Catholic, Orthodox or Ethiopian Bible

Any plan defined by an order works for any Bible: cover to cover, both testaments together, or a pace of your own. The wider canons hold more chapters, so each day carries a little more.

The Orthodox and Ethiopian rows follow our own count of those Bibles’ books.

The named plans are another matter. M’Cheyne’s calendar, Horner’s ten lists and the Navigators’ four readings are laid out over the 66 books of the Protestant Bible. A reader of a Catholic Bible can follow one and read the rest alongside or afterward: the seven books Catholics call deuterocanonical and Protestants usually call the Apocrypha, with the longer forms of Esther and Daniel, add 145 chapters, under five months at a chapter a day. Our Catholic Bible reading plan covers all 73 books at any pace.

What if the plan you chose stops working?

Change it. The chapters you have read stay read, whichever plan put them in front of you, so a new plan can pick up from where you are rather than from Genesis.

On a dated plan, you can rejoin at today’s date and note the chapters you passed over, or carry on from where you stopped and let the last day move later. Moving from cover to cover to a plan that reads both testaments means carrying on in the Old Testament where you were and starting the New at Matthew 1. Our guide for when you are behind on a Bible reading plan goes through the options.

The authors of these plans expected readers to struggle with them. Horner’s instructions say, “If you miss a day or two – ok, get over it, then keep going.” And M’Cheyne, listing the dangers of his own calendar, ended with the risk that it becomes a yoke too heavy to bear:

If this be the case with any, throw aside the fetter, and feed at liberty in the sweet garden of God. My desire is not to cast a snare upon you, but to be a helper of your joy.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, preface to his reading calendar, 1842

A plan is a tool for reading the Bible, and the one worth keeping is the one that fits the days you actually have.

Questions people ask

What is the most popular Bible reading plan?

We know of no published count of how many people follow each plan, so any ranking is a guess. The classic plans are a one-year plan read straight through or in chronological order, the M'Cheyne plan, the Navigators plan, Professor Grant Horner's system and the Five Day program. Ligonier Ministries' list of 22 reading plans for 2026, published in December 2025, includes every one of them.

Is the M'Cheyne plan or the Navigators plan better?

They suit different readers. Both give four readings a day. M'Cheyne's calendar dates every day of the year and reads the New Testament and Psalms twice, about 4.4 chapters a day. The Navigators plan reads everything once in 25 readings a month, about 4 chapters on each reading day, and leaves three to six free days a month for catching up or resting.

Is there a Bible reading plan with days off?

Yes, of two kinds. The Navigators plan gives 25 readings a month and leaves the other days free. A 5-day plan reads Monday to Friday, so the whole Protestant Bible in a year is 4.6 chapters on each reading day, about 12 to 14 minutes, and the New Testament alone is one chapter a weekday.

Can you switch Bible reading plans partway through the year?

Yes, and nothing you have read is lost, because the chapters stay read. Begin the new plan at the point that matches where you are, or start it today and note which books you have already covered. Moving from a cover-to-cover plan to one that reads both testaments, for example, means carrying on in the Old Testament where you stopped and starting the New at Matthew 1.

Which Bible reading plan works for a Catholic Bible?

Any plan defined by an order rather than a fixed list, such as cover to cover or both testaments together, at a pace you choose. The 73-book Catholic Bible has 1,334 chapters, about 3.7 a day for a year or 5.1 on weekdays only. The classic named plans are laid out over the Protestant Bible's 66 books, so a Catholic reader using one adds 145 chapters.

Sources

1. Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1842). Daily Bread: a calendar for reading through the Word of God in a year, with preface and directions, mcheyne.info
2. Grant Horner, Professor Grant Horner's Bible-Reading System (PDF)
3. The Navigators, Bible Reading Plans
4. The Navigators Bible Reading Plan (2005), adapted from the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan, screen-reader text
5. Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Wikipedia
6. Five Day Bible Reading Program, FAQ
7. Five Day Bible Reading Program, Five Day Bible Reading Schedule
8. Five Day Bible Reading Program, 2026 schedule (PDF)
9. Ligonier Ministries, Bible Reading Plans for 2026 (December 19, 2025)
10. Blue Letter Bible, Daily Bible Reading Program, Chronological Plan (1-Year Plan), PDF
11. Chronological Bible Reading Plan (Back to the Bible), published by ESV, PDF
12. Chronological Bible Reading Plan, courtesy of Tyndale House Publishers, via Walk Thru the Bible, PDF
13. Billy Graham Library, June daily devotional, week 1
14. 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.
15. World English Bible, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
16. King James Version, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org