Conor McAleny's 90th minute curling effort from the edge of the box secured a point on the road for Cardiff City.
It was City's sixth game in a row unbeaten away from home and leaves the club in 13th position in the Championsip.
City are 16 points above the relegation places and 16 points behind the play off places with six games to play. Mid table sums it up perfectly.
Pavel Pogrebnyak edged Reading into a 4th minute lead and the Royals, FA Cup semi finalists, thought they had done enough to secure a win until McAleny's strike as the clock struck 90.
Reading face Arsenal at Wembley in a couple of weeks for only their 2nd ever FA cup semi final. Their first was in 1927 when they lost 3 - 0 to the competition winners Cardiff City at Molineux.
Joe Mason made a return today when he came off the bench for a 25 minute run out.
Cardiff face Bolton on Monday at CCS, ko 3:00pm.
Reading: Federici, Gunter, Pearce, Hector, Obita, McCleary (Norwood 74'), Ake, Akpan, Robson-Kanu (Blackman 85'), Mackie (Appiah 68'), Pogrebnyak
Subs not used: Yakubu, Karacan, Knight, Andersen
Goals: Pogrebnyak 4'
Cardiff: Marshall, Peltier (Malone 84'), Ecuele Manga, Morrison, Da Silva, Noone, Whittingham, Gunnarsson, Ralls (Kennedy 65'), Doyle (Mason 65'), McAleny
Subs not used: Adeyemi, O'Keefe, Moore, Gabbidon.
Goals: McAleny 90'
Referee: Scott Duncan
Attendance: 17,953