How to Read the Bible in 90 Days (Plan + PDF)

Reading the whole Bible in 90 days means about 13 chapters a day, which is roughly an hour of reading every day for three months. It can be done, and people who do it tend to describe it the same way: for the first time the Bible felt like one story instead of a collection of verses.

It is also the plan most people quit. This post covers what a 90-day plan really asks of you, who it works for, and two alternatives that keep the speed without the burnout: the New Testament in 90 days, and the whole Bible in 6 months.

#What 90 days actually looks like

The Bible has 1,189 chapters. Spread over 90 days, that is 13 or 14 chapters daily. Reading speed varies, but most people take four to five minutes per chapter, so plan on 50 to 70 minutes a day. Audio Bibles run about 75 hours for the whole text, which is 50 minutes a day.

Some days are lighter. Psalm 117 is two verses. Some are heavier. Ezekiel chapters are long and strange. The average is an hour, and the pace does not let up on weekends.

The question is whether you have an hour a day for 13 weeks in a row. If you do, a fast read through the whole Bible is one of the best things you can do with it. If you do not, pick one of the plans below rather than starting the big one and stopping in Leviticus.

#Why reading fast works

Slow reading and fast reading do different jobs.

When you read a chapter a day, you notice details. When you read 13 chapters a day, you notice shape. You see that Exodus and Deuteronomy tell the same events twice from different angles. You read Kings and Chronicles close enough together to notice what Chronicles leaves out. The prophets stop being random poems and start being commentary on the history you just read. And you reach the Gospels with the Old Testament fresh, which is how their first readers read them.

Most people who have read the Bible for years have only read it slowly. A fast pass, once, fills in the map.

#Option 1: the New Testament in 90 days

If an hour a day is too much, the New Testament is the natural place to start. It is 260 chapters, so 90 days works out to three chapters a day, about ten minutes.

That pace is fast enough to keep the story moving. You read a Gospel in about a week. Acts and the letters follow in the order that shows how the church spread. You end at Revelation with the rest of the New Testament still in mind, which makes Revelation less bewildering than it is on its own.

The New Testament in 90 Days plan does exactly this, Matthew to Revelation, three chapters a day. It comes with a printable PDF that lists all 90 readings by week with a checkbox for each day, free and with no sign-up.

This is the plan to pick if you want the 90-day shape without the hour a day. It is also a good first long plan for someone who has finished a shorter one and wants more.

#Option 2: the whole Bible in 6 months

If you want the entire Bible but 90 days is too steep, doubling the time cuts the daily reading to something most people can sustain.

The Bible in 6 Months covers all 1,189 chapters in 180 readings of six or seven chapters, about 30 minutes a day. Six months is still fast enough to keep the story connected. Genesis is only a few weeks behind you when you reach the prophets who keep referring to it, and you get to the New Testament in month five with the Old Testament still fresh.

Thirty minutes a day is a real commitment, so tie it to a fixed slot. A lot of people split it: three chapters with coffee, the rest before bed. The plan has a printable PDF too.

If you are choosing between the two whole-Bible plans, the 6-month one finishes far more often. The Bible in 1 Year at 15 minutes a day is the slower option again if 30 minutes is too much.

#How to survive a fast plan

These apply whether you are doing 90 days or 180.

Read for the story. When a passage is confusing, keep going, mark it, and come back with a slower plan later.

Do not catch up. Missing a day happens. When it does, read today's reading, not two days' worth. Catching up is how a fast plan becomes an impossible plan. Let the finish date move.

Use audio for the hard stretches. Listening counts. Numbers and Chronicles go down much easier read aloud by someone else while you drive or do dishes.

Read at the same time every day. A fixed slot survives a busy week better than good intentions do.

Know where the slow parts are. Leviticus, Numbers, 1 Chronicles 1 to 9, and Ezekiel 40 to 48 are the sections where most fast plans die. Expect them, and keep moving through them. They are a few days each.

Track it. A checkbox a day is surprisingly motivating on a plan this long. Print the PDF or let an app keep the streak.

#Which plan should you pick?

If you have	Pick	Daily reading
An hour a day, 13 weeks free	The whole Bible in 90 days	13 chapters, ~60 min
10 minutes a day	New Testament in 90 Days	3 chapters
30 minutes a day	Bible in 6 Months	6 to 7 chapters
15 minutes a day	Bible in 1 Year	3 to 4 chapters

We do not currently offer a whole-Bible 90-day plan. The 6-month plan is our fast option, and it is the one we would recommend to most people who ask about 90 days.

Whichever you choose, the first day is the same: open to the first reading, read it, tick the box. Then do it again tomorrow.