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What is your screen time actually costing you?

Enter your daily average and see it projected over one, five and ten years — as whole days, books you could have read, and sunsets' worth of time. It runs entirely in your browser.

On iPhone: Settings → Screen Time → See All App & Website Activity → Daily Average.

4h 30m
30m16h

That's 68 full days a year, or 28% of your waking life. Based on a 16-hour waking day (8 hours for sleep).

At this rate

Over 1 year

0.2 years

of 24-hour days, spent looking at a screen

Days lost
68
Books unread
274
Sunsets missed
3,942

Over 5 years

0.9 years

of 24-hour days, spent looking at a screen

Days lost
342
Books unread
1,369
Sunsets missed
19,710

Over 10 years

1.9 years

of 24-hour days, spent looking at a screen

Days lost
684
Books unread
2,738
Sunsets missed
39,420

How these are worked out: A 90,000-word book read at about 250 words a minute — roughly six hours a book. About 25 minutes of usable light around sunset, one per day. These are arithmetic on the number you entered, held constant — not a prediction, and not a research finding.

The part worth knowing

You are not going to get to zero, and you should not try. But a large share of that time is not chosen — it is the reach, repeated. If a thirty-second pause redirected 30% of it, you would win back 205 days over ten years.

That 30% is our own conservative estimate, not a measured result. We would rather show you where it comes from than dress it up.

Try the 30-second reset

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For context

Questions

How is the screen time cost calculated?

Your daily average is held constant and multiplied out across 1, 5 and 10 years, then converted into 24-hour days. The book and sunset figures are unit conversions of those same hours using assumptions stated on the page — six hours a book, twenty-five minutes a sunset. Nothing here is a research finding.

Does this calculator send my data anywhere?

No. Every calculation runs in your browser and nothing is transmitted. The only exception is if you choose to enter your email for a copy of the results.

What is a normal amount of daily screen time?

Ofcom found UK adults averaged 4½ hours online per day in 2025, with 77% of that on a phone; globally, DataReportal and GWI put adult internet users at 6h 38m a day across all devices. "Normal" is high — which is rather the point.

Is high screen time actually bad for me?

Total hours matter less than what the hours displace and how automatic they are. One controlled finding worth knowing: having your phone merely present and face-down measurably reduced performance on attention tasks compared with leaving it in another room. This calculator measures time, not harm — it is a prompt to think, not a diagnosis.

How do I actually reduce my screen time?

Target the reach rather than the total. Interrupt the automatic app-open with a few seconds of something else, and make sure the interruption is shorter than the impulse — an intervention that costs more than the scroll does not survive contact with a real week.

Want the longer version? Read the digital wellbeing guide.