The REAL Reason This Metric is Not Shared With Us
The Medium business model relies on it
If you figure out the best-read length that can cover the reader’s eyes, then you’re in gold land.

Why is read length not a secret but hidden from us
First, we have to know that attention is everything on any social platform.
From cash is king, now attention replaced it.
If I told you the algorithm = the read time, would that blow your mind, or do you think I’m out of mine?
Let me example
Let’s set the context as if what I said was true.
Then we go and define what does read time or length means to every part of Medium.
Read time is your habits
- Read time, is what we choose to read but we have little control over yet there’s a pattern.
- Read time, dictates us when writing, do you often check your length or how many minutes does it require to read? (there is also a pattern there)
- With both patterns, Medium then puts it in their filter of many other metrics.
Use of read time and the algorithm
The placement magic happens while the algorithm tries to match your read length’s write, what is being shown to you as a suggested read
Now the most interesting part is read time in relation to earnings.
I’m sure we have all earnings with less than $0.10 and some higher than $0.20, but common ones are within a certain range.
Sometimes, I think the topics might matter but it turns out it was read time that is making all decisions.
Read length affects your writing
Read over 30 seconds counts as a read and no other information was given after the August 2023 update, which none will look at again.
What we heard was earnings will no longer be based solely on read time.
But rather an engagement with read time, but the second part was never re-mention as medium does not want the reader to be just passive.
And also do not want you to focus on or know how to calculate the earnings. Which makes us want to know even more about how to find out what makes our earnings move in such a wide range.
Just take your 2-minute post and compare it with your 4-minute post, you’ll see a lot of hints that read time is the main factor based on post-performance with similar reads and the number of people clapping on a post.
Earnings is moved more so by the read time and traffic placement is more so by engagement. (both exist just that medium not going to tell us how it was measured in terms of earnings)
Read time also attracts the same reader base and interacting has it’s correlation to it. (the read length is a moving target, that is why the algorithm is constantly tracking it and analysis it for article placement and earning record keeping)
Don’t forget read time is a form of engagement.
How has read time or length affected you as a reader and writing as a writer?