This quick trick adds a little “5 min read” badge next to every post title — no plugins, just one line of code.

Step 1: Open Your Theme

In your theme folder, open post.hbs (or article.hbs if your theme uses that).

Step 2: Find the Title Line

Look for something like:

hbs

<h1 class="post-title">{{title}}</h1>

Step 3: Add the Badge

Replace it with:

hbs

<h1 class="post-title">
  {{title}}
  <span class="reading-time">{{reading_time}} min read</span>
</h1>

Step 4: Add Some CSS (optional)

In assets/css/screen.css (or your main stylesheet), add:

css

.reading-time {
  font-size: 0.8em;
  color: #738a94;
  margin-left: 8px;
  font-weight: normal;
}

Done!

Ghost auto-calculates {{reading_time}}. Refresh any post — you’ll see the badge.

Works on every post. No config. Zero effort.