How long does it take to read the Throne of Glass series?
Sarah J. Maas · 8 books
At an average reading speed of 250 words a minute, all 8 books of Throne of Glass take about 98 hours to read. The unabridged audiobooks run 158 hours at 1x, or 106 hours at 1.5x.
Throne of Glass is one of the longest series in our study of 100, fifth overall and longer than Harry Potter. The books grow as it goes: the first three are about 8 hours each at an average pace, and Kingdom of Ash, the last, is over 20.
Average is about 250 WPM. Measure yours in two minutes and every time on this page recalculates.
Every book, timed
| Book | Words | Read | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Assassin's Blade | ~119,660 | 7h 59m | 12h 52m |
| Throne of Glass | ~121,365 | 8h 5m | 13h 3m |
| Crown of Midnight | ~118,265 | 7h 53m | 12h 43m |
| Heir of Fire | ~166,780 | 11h 7m | 17h 56m |
| Queen of Shadows | ~192,665 | 12h 51m | 20h 43m |
| Empire of Storms | ~235,290 | 15h 41m | 25h 18m |
| Tower of Dawn | ~210,645 | 14h 3m | 22h 39m |
| Kingdom of Ash | ~308,605 | 20h 34m | 33h 11m |
How much to read a day
At 250 words a minute, to finish the whole series:
Have a deadline in mind? The pages-per-day calculator works it out for any date.
How we measured it
Method: audiobook estimate. Estimated from the unabridged audiobooks narrated by Elizabeth Evans at 155 words a minute. Every length was confirmed by at least two of Audible, Libro.fm and Apple Books, which agree to within two minutes. The count includes The Assassin's Blade, the prequel novella collection.
Part of our study of the 100 most popular books, last checked November 2026. Reading times assume steady reading; editions, translations and your own pace all move them.
See how long it really takes you
Log each book in Parch as you read. It tracks your pages, sessions and streak, so you'll know your real pace, and how long the next one will take.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read the Throne of Glass series?
About 98 hours at an average reading speed of 250 words a minute: 123 hours at 200 and 82 hours at 300. That covers all 8 books, from The Assassin's Blade to Kingdom of Ash.
How many words are in the Throne of Glass series?
About 1.5 million words across 8 books. The longest is Kingdom of Ash (308,605); the shortest is Crown of Midnight (118,265). That's estimated from the unabridged audiobook at a narration pace of 155 words a minute, so treat it as close, not exact.
How long are the audiobooks?
About 158 hours unabridged at 1x for the whole series: 105h 37m at 1.5x and 79h 13m at 2x.
How many pages a day to finish the Throne of Glass series in a month?
About 179 pages a day, or 3h 17m of reading a day at an average pace. That assumes about 5,357 pages at 275 words a page; real page counts vary by edition.
Which Throne of Glass book is the longest?
Kingdom of Ash, at about 309,000 words: roughly 20 and a half hours of reading, or 33 hours 11 minutes as an audiobook.
Is Throne of Glass longer than ACOTAR?
Longer, by about half: roughly 1.47 million words against ACOTAR's 1.01 million across its six books, by the same audiobook estimate. That's about 98 hours of reading against 68.
Do I need to read The Assassin's Blade?
It's optional but recommended: five prequel novellas, about 8 hours of reading, that set up people and events later books return to. It was published after Crown of Midnight, and many readers read it there.