Bible Reading Plans Compared
The best Bible reading plan is the one you'll actually keep. Plans differ in three ways: how long they take (90 days to several years), how much you read each day (5 minutes to an hour), and the order you read in (front to back, chronological, or mixed). This guide compares the most popular plans so you can choose one that fits your season of life.
Bible reading plans at a glance
| Plan | Covers | Length | Daily reading | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cover to cover | Whole Bible | 1 year (flexible) | 3–4 chapters | First-time readers who want simplicity |
| Chronological | Whole Bible | 1 year | 3–4 chapters | Understanding the historical story |
| Old + New Testament each day | Whole Bible | 1 year | 2–4 chapters from each Testament | Variety every day |
| M'Cheyne | Whole Bible; NT and Psalms twice | 1 year | 4 chapters | Experienced readers |
| Professor Horner's system | Rotating ten lists | Ongoing | 10 chapters | Fast, high-volume readers |
| Navigators 5x5x5 | New Testament | 1 year | 1 chapter, 5 days a week | Beginners and busy seasons |
| Bible in 90 Days | Whole Bible | 90 days | About 12 pages | An intensive, time-boxed challenge |
| New Testament in 90 days | New Testament | 90 days | About 3 chapters | A short, achievable first goal |
| Track-as-you-go | Whatever you read | Your pace | Your choice | People who want freedom without losing track |
Cover to cover (canonical order)
Start at Genesis 1 and read straight through to Revelation 22. At about 3¼ chapters a day, you'll finish in a year. It's simple and needs no schedule, but many readers stall in the long legal sections of Leviticus and Numbers, and you won't reach the New Testament until autumn.
Tip: If you get stuck, it's fine to switch to a Gospel for a while and come back. See How to Read the Bible in a Year.
Chronological
A chronological plan arranges the Bible roughly in the order events happened. Most chronological plans, such as the Blue Letter Bible's one-year chronological plan, read Job during the time of the patriarchs in Genesis, read many Psalms alongside the life of David, and read the prophets alongside the history of the kings they lived under. This helps you see how the pieces fit together. Scholars date some books differently, so chronological plans don't all agree on the details.
Read more in How to Read the Bible Chronologically.
Old and New Testament each day
Many one-year plans give you a passage from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament each day, and sometimes a Psalm or Proverb as well. The variety keeps things fresh, and you're never more than a day away from the Gospels.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne's plan
Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne published his reading calendar at the end of 1842 for his church in Dundee. It assigns four chapters a day, from four different places in the Bible, so that in a year you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice. It's still one of the most widely used plans nearly two centuries later. It's a big daily commitment, but it's rich and well balanced.
Professor Grant Horner's system
Grant Horner, a literature professor, created a system of ten lists — the Gospels, the Law, Paul's letters, Psalms, Proverbs, the History books, the Prophets, Acts, and others. You read one chapter from each list every day, ten chapters in all, and each list loops back to the start when you finish it. Shorter lists like Proverbs and Acts repeat many times a year. Horner estimates it takes about an hour a day, and many readers report 35 to 40 minutes. It's intense, but it builds a broad familiarity with Scripture fast.
The Navigators 5x5x5 plan
The Navigators' 5x5x5 plan is designed for beginners and busy people: 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week, with 5 ways to dig deeper, such as underlining, summarizing, and applying what you read. It reads one New Testament chapter a day and covers the New Testament in a year. The two weekly "off" days make it forgiving.
The Bible in 90 Days
The Bible in 90 Days, developed by Ted Cooper Jr. and published by Zondervan, takes you through the whole Bible in 12 pages a day using a specially formatted edition. Based on the Bible's length, plan for about 35 to 50 minutes a day. Many churches do it together as a group challenge.
Track-as-you-go: read freely, track everything
Instead of following a fixed schedule, some people read whatever they're drawn to — a book their church is studying, a Gospel, a few Psalms — and use a tracker to record what they've covered. Over time, the tracker shows what's left, so you can still read the whole Bible without a rigid calendar.
This is how My Bible Log works. You log what you read on the Today page or Chapter Checklist, set a daily verse goal, and the Progress page predicts when you'll finish. Reading suggestions point you toward passages you haven't read yet.
How to choose a Bible reading plan
- New to reading the Bible? Start with the New Testament in 90 days or the Navigators 5x5x5 plan.
- Want to read the whole Bible this year? Try cover to cover, chronological, or an Old-and-New-Testament plan. See how long it takes.
- Only have a few minutes a day? Try reading the Bible in 2 years.
- Want a challenge? Try M'Cheyne, Professor Horner's system, the Bible in 6 months, or the Bible in 90 Days.
- Keep falling behind on plans? Try track-as-you-go, and read our tips for a strong Bible reading habit.
Whatever plan you choose, keep a record of your progress. Research on goal pursuit consistently finds that monitoring progress makes people more likely to reach their goals.
Go to My Bible Log overview