From d6bcca2a25300f2962357ab3a190a5122fdd96d0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Igor Balos <ibalosh@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:49:24 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 1/4] described more intentionally what reading time function
 does

---
 ghost/core/core/frontend/helpers/reading_time.js | 7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ghost/core/core/frontend/helpers/reading_time.js b/ghost/core/core/frontend/helpers/reading_time.js
index dc3743c414a..6de413724b1 100644
--- a/ghost/core/core/frontend/helpers/reading_time.js
+++ b/ghost/core/core/frontend/helpers/reading_time.js
@@ -13,18 +13,19 @@
 const {checks} = require('../services/data');
 const {SafeString} = require('../services/handlebars');
 
-const {readingTime: calculateReadingTime} = require('@tryghost/helpers');
+const {readingTime: calculateAndFormatReadingTime} = require('@tryghost/helpers');
 
 module.exports = function reading_time(options) {// eslint-disable-line camelcase
     options = options || {};
     options.hash = options.hash || {};
+    const possiblyPost = this;
 
     // only calculate reading time for posts
-    if (!checks.isPost(this)) {
+    if (!checks.isPost(possiblyPost)) {
         return null;
     }
 
-    let readingTime = calculateReadingTime(this, options.hash);
+    const readingTime = calculateAndFormatReadingTime(possiblyPost, options.hash);
 
     return new SafeString(readingTime);
 };

From 9ba2ed7ec6276a7daa13a88c48709bd65a5c0bfc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Igor Balos <ibalosh@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2025 13:49:10 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 2/4] added migration for adding reading time to the posts
 table

revert tests
---
 .../utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js         | 8 ++++++--
 ...025-10-10-10-57-59-add-reading-time-column-to-posts.js | 7 +++++++
 ghost/core/core/server/data/schema/schema.js              | 3 ++-
 .../admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap        | 4 ++--
 .../test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap | 2 +-
 ghost/core/test/unit/server/data/schema/integrity.test.js | 2 +-
 6 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-10-57-59-add-reading-time-column-to-posts.js

diff --git a/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js b/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js
index f1dc5b17501..2dab4a6fec3 100644
--- a/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js
+++ b/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ module.exports.forPost = (options, model, attrs) => {
     const columnsIncludesPlaintext = options.columns?.includes('plaintext');
     const columnsIncludesReadingTime = options.columns?.includes('reading_time');
     const formatsIncludesPlaintext = options.formats?.includes('plaintext');
+    const noColumnsRequested = !Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(options, 'columns');
 
     // 1. Gets excerpt from post's plaintext. If custom_excerpt exists, it overrides the excerpt but the key remains excerpt.
     if (columnsIncludesExcerpt) {
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ module.exports.forPost = (options, model, attrs) => {
     }
 
     // 3. Displays excerpt if no columns was requested - specifically needed for the Admin Posts API
-    if (!Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(options, 'columns')) {
+    if (noColumnsRequested) {
         let customExcerpt = model.get('custom_excerpt');
 
         if (customExcerpt !== null) {
@@ -59,7 +60,7 @@ module.exports.forPost = (options, model, attrs) => {
     }
 
     // 4. Add `reading_time` if no columns were requested, or if `reading_time` was requested via `columns`
-    if (!Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(options, 'columns') || columnsIncludesReadingTime) {
+    if (noColumnsRequested || columnsIncludesReadingTime) {
         if (attrs.html) {
             let additionalImages = 0;
 
@@ -67,6 +68,9 @@ module.exports.forPost = (options, model, attrs) => {
                 additionalImages += 1;
             }
             attrs.reading_time = readingMinutes(attrs.html, additionalImages);
+        } else if (attrs.reading_time === null) {
+            // Remove null reading_time from response
+            delete attrs.reading_time;
         }
     }
 };
diff --git a/ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-10-57-59-add-reading-time-column-to-posts.js b/ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-10-57-59-add-reading-time-column-to-posts.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..fe4745c8d10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-10-57-59-add-reading-time-column-to-posts.js
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+const {createAddColumnMigration} = require('../../utils');
+
+module.exports = createAddColumnMigration('posts', 'reading_time', {
+    type: 'integer',
+    nullable: true,
+    unsigned: true
+});
diff --git a/ghost/core/core/server/data/schema/schema.js b/ghost/core/core/server/data/schema/schema.js
index 6b335beeade..5189bb4a53d 100644
--- a/ghost/core/core/server/data/schema/schema.js
+++ b/ghost/core/core/server/data/schema/schema.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /* String Column Sizes Information
  * (From: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/7932)
  * New/Updated column maxlengths should meet these guidlines
- * 
+ *
  * Small strings = length 50
  * Medium strings = length 191
  * Large strings = length 2000 (use soft limits via validation for 191-2000)
@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@ module.exports = {
         canonical_url: {type: 'text', maxlength: 2000, nullable: true},
         newsletter_id: {type: 'string', maxlength: 24, nullable: true, references: 'newsletters.id'},
         show_title_and_feature_image: {type: 'boolean', nullable: false, defaultTo: true},
+        reading_time: {type: 'integer', nullable: true, unsigned: true},
         '@@INDEXES@@': [
             ['type','status','updated_at']
         ],
diff --git a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap
index 61eb698d9ff..3865ae7b013 100644
--- a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap
+++ b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap
@@ -22699,7 +22699,7 @@ exports[`Activity Feed API Can filter events by post id 2: [headers] 1`] = `
 Object {
   "access-control-allow-origin": "http://127.0.0.1:2369",
   "cache-control": "no-cache, private, no-store, must-revalidate, max-stale=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0",
-  "content-length": "17979",
+  "content-length": "18039",
   "content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8",
   "content-version": StringMatching /v\\\\d\\+\\\\\\.\\\\d\\+/,
   "etag": StringMatching /\\(\\?:W\\\\/\\)\\?"\\(\\?:\\[ !#-\\\\x7E\\\\x80-\\\\xFF\\]\\*\\|\\\\r\\\\n\\[\\\\t \\]\\|\\\\\\\\\\.\\)\\*"/,
@@ -24300,7 +24300,7 @@ exports[`Activity Feed API Returns signup events in activity feed 2: [headers] 1
 Object {
   "access-control-allow-origin": "http://127.0.0.1:2369",
   "cache-control": "no-cache, private, no-store, must-revalidate, max-stale=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0",
-  "content-length": "21855",
+  "content-length": "22015",
   "content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8",
   "content-version": StringMatching /v\\\\d\\+\\\\\\.\\\\d\\+/,
   "etag": StringMatching /\\(\\?:W\\\\/\\)\\?"\\(\\?:\\[ !#-\\\\x7E\\\\x80-\\\\xFF\\]\\*\\|\\\\r\\\\n\\[\\\\t \\]\\|\\\\\\\\\\.\\)\\*"/,
diff --git a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap
index fa84d5c213b..22a7d6985ac 100644
--- a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap
+++ b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap
@@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ exports[`Members API - member attribution Returns sign up attributions of all ty
 Object {
   "access-control-allow-origin": "http://127.0.0.1:2369",
   "cache-control": "no-cache, private, no-store, must-revalidate, max-stale=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0",
-  "content-length": "8685",
+  "content-length": "8725",
   "content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8",
   "content-version": StringMatching /v\\\\d\\+\\\\\\.\\\\d\\+/,
   "etag": StringMatching /\\(\\?:W\\\\/\\)\\?"\\(\\?:\\[ !#-\\\\x7E\\\\x80-\\\\xFF\\]\\*\\|\\\\r\\\\n\\[\\\\t \\]\\|\\\\\\\\\\.\\)\\*"/,
diff --git a/ghost/core/test/unit/server/data/schema/integrity.test.js b/ghost/core/test/unit/server/data/schema/integrity.test.js
index 4ff359942f7..e2ef4bcceef 100644
--- a/ghost/core/test/unit/server/data/schema/integrity.test.js
+++ b/ghost/core/test/unit/server/data/schema/integrity.test.js
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ const validateRouteSettings = require('../../../../../core/server/services/route
  */
 describe('DB version integrity', function () {
     // Only these variables should need updating
-    const currentSchemaHash = '3071f336e59e2ff87f1336caf5dfaed6';
+    const currentSchemaHash = '97d31db45c4817ed5e7760cf5d60de90';
     const currentFixturesHash = '0877727032b8beddbaedc086a8acf1a2';
     const currentSettingsHash = 'bb8be7d83407f2b4fa2ad68c19610579';
     const currentRoutesHash = '3d180d52c663d173a6be791ef411ed01';

From 190697f70fb3f61fab44316e48f645358bd6293b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Igor Balos <ibalosh@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:01:34 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 3/4] aded backfil migration

---
 ...25-10-10-13-23-52-backfill-reading-times.js | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-13-23-52-backfill-reading-times.js

diff --git a/ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-13-23-52-backfill-reading-times.js b/ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-13-23-52-backfill-reading-times.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7ccf4213c0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ghost/core/core/server/data/migrations/versions/6.4/2025-10-10-13-23-52-backfill-reading-times.js
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+const logging = require('@tryghost/logging');
+const {createTransactionalMigration} = require('../../utils');
+const {calculatePostReadingTime} = require('../../../../../shared/post-reading-times');
+
+module.exports = createTransactionalMigration(
+    async function up(knex) {
+        const posts = await knex.select('id', 'html', 'feature_image').from('posts').whereNotNull('html');
+
+        logging.info(`Adding reading_time field value to ${posts.length} posts.`);
+
+        // eslint-disable-next-line no-restricted-syntax
+        for (const post of posts) {
+            const readingTime = calculatePostReadingTime(post.html, post.feature_image);
+            await knex('posts').update('reading_time', readingTime).where('id', post.id);
+        }
+    },
+    async function down() {}
+);

From 7295342824961e1eeb7a51939a7d7ab8a66ffa70 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Igor Balos <ibalosh@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:02:09 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 4/4] moved to using real database reading_time, instead of
 using it on-the-fly

---
 .../serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js      | 12 +-----------
 ghost/core/core/server/models/post.js            | 10 ++++++++++
 ghost/core/core/shared/post-reading-times.js     | 16 ++++++++++++++++
 .../__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap     |  4 ++--
 .../admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap     |  2 +-
 5 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 ghost/core/core/shared/post-reading-times.js

diff --git a/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js b/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js
index 2dab4a6fec3..5a32026749d 100644
--- a/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js
+++ b/ghost/core/core/server/api/endpoints/utils/serializers/output/utils/extra-attrs.js
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-const readingMinutes = require('@tryghost/helpers').utils.readingMinutes;
-
 /**
  *
  * @param {Object} options - frame options
@@ -61,15 +59,7 @@ module.exports.forPost = (options, model, attrs) => {
 
     // 4. Add `reading_time` if no columns were requested, or if `reading_time` was requested via `columns`
     if (noColumnsRequested || columnsIncludesReadingTime) {
-        if (attrs.html) {
-            let additionalImages = 0;
-
-            if (attrs.feature_image) {
-                additionalImages += 1;
-            }
-            attrs.reading_time = readingMinutes(attrs.html, additionalImages);
-        } else if (attrs.reading_time === null) {
-            // Remove null reading_time from response
+        if (attrs.reading_time === null) {
             delete attrs.reading_time;
         }
     }
diff --git a/ghost/core/core/server/models/post.js b/ghost/core/core/server/models/post.js
index 4b18c028750..a611ba7e5d5 100644
--- a/ghost/core/core/server/models/post.js
+++ b/ghost/core/core/server/models/post.js
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ const {Newsletter} = require('./newsletter');
 const {BadRequestError} = require('@tryghost/errors');
 const {mobiledocToLexical} = require('@tryghost/kg-converters');
 const {setIsRoles} = require('./role-utils');
+const {calculatePostReadingTime} = require('../../shared/post-reading-times');
 
 const messages = {
     isAlreadyPublished: 'Your post is already published, please reload your page.',
@@ -750,6 +751,15 @@ Post = ghostBookshelf.Model.extend({
             }
         }
 
+        // Calculate and store reading_time whenever html or feature_image changes
+        if (this.hasChanged('html') || this.hasChanged('feature_image')) {
+            if (this.get('html')) {
+                this.set('reading_time', calculatePostReadingTime(this.get('html'), this.get('feature_image')));
+            } else {
+                this.set('reading_time', null);
+            }
+        }
+
         // disabling sanitization until we can implement a better version
         if (!options.importing) {
             title = this.get('title') || tpl(messages.untitled);
diff --git a/ghost/core/core/shared/post-reading-times.js b/ghost/core/core/shared/post-reading-times.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..aba383499d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ghost/core/core/shared/post-reading-times.js
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+const {readingMinutes} = require('@tryghost/helpers').utils;
+
+/**
+ * Calculate reading time for a post
+ * @param {string} html - Post HTML content
+ * @param {string|null} featureImage - Feature image URL (or null)
+ * @returns {number} Reading time in minutes
+ */
+function calculatePostReadingTime(html, featureImage) {
+    const additionalImages = featureImage ? 1 : 0;
+    return readingMinutes(html, additionalImages);
+}
+
+module.exports = {
+    calculatePostReadingTime
+};
diff --git a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap
index 3865ae7b013..f5249e14ee0 100644
--- a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap
+++ b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/activity-feed.test.js.snap
@@ -22699,7 +22699,7 @@ exports[`Activity Feed API Can filter events by post id 2: [headers] 1`] = `
 Object {
   "access-control-allow-origin": "http://127.0.0.1:2369",
   "cache-control": "no-cache, private, no-store, must-revalidate, max-stale=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0",
-  "content-length": "18039",
+  "content-length": "18030",
   "content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8",
   "content-version": StringMatching /v\\\\d\\+\\\\\\.\\\\d\\+/,
   "etag": StringMatching /\\(\\?:W\\\\/\\)\\?"\\(\\?:\\[ !#-\\\\x7E\\\\x80-\\\\xFF\\]\\*\\|\\\\r\\\\n\\[\\\\t \\]\\|\\\\\\\\\\.\\)\\*"/,
@@ -24300,7 +24300,7 @@ exports[`Activity Feed API Returns signup events in activity feed 2: [headers] 1
 Object {
   "access-control-allow-origin": "http://127.0.0.1:2369",
   "cache-control": "no-cache, private, no-store, must-revalidate, max-stale=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0",
-  "content-length": "22015",
+  "content-length": "21991",
   "content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8",
   "content-version": StringMatching /v\\\\d\\+\\\\\\.\\\\d\\+/,
   "etag": StringMatching /\\(\\?:W\\\\/\\)\\?"\\(\\?:\\[ !#-\\\\x7E\\\\x80-\\\\xFF\\]\\*\\|\\\\r\\\\n\\[\\\\t \\]\\|\\\\\\\\\\.\\)\\*"/,
diff --git a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap
index 22a7d6985ac..8ef19dfe683 100644
--- a/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap
+++ b/ghost/core/test/e2e-api/admin/__snapshots__/members.test.js.snap
@@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ exports[`Members API - member attribution Returns sign up attributions of all ty
 Object {
   "access-control-allow-origin": "http://127.0.0.1:2369",
   "cache-control": "no-cache, private, no-store, must-revalidate, max-stale=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0",
-  "content-length": "8725",
+  "content-length": "8719",
   "content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8",
   "content-version": StringMatching /v\\\\d\\+\\\\\\.\\\\d\\+/,
   "etag": StringMatching /\\(\\?:W\\\\/\\)\\?"\\(\\?:\\[ !#-\\\\x7E\\\\x80-\\\\xFF\\]\\*\\|\\\\r\\\\n\\[\\\\t \\]\\|\\\\\\\\\\.\\)\\*"/,