After 120 minutes of game time neither side had managed to find the back of the net and it was left to penalties to decide who would secure a place in England’s top flight.
After Danny Ward saved Reading’s fifth, Christopher Schindler scored the decisive spot-kick to win 4-3 on penalties.
They will now be playing in the top flight of English football for the first time since 1972 next season.
Huddersfield had the first chance of the match inside five minutes when Michael Hefele should have done better with his header from Aaron Mooy’s free-kick.
But his miss wasn’t as bad as his team-mate Izzy Brown’s just moments later.
After some neat work by Tommy Smith and Elias Kachunga down the right the latter played the ball across the face of goal for Brown but he failed to convert into an open goal from two metres out.
Huddersfield continued to dominate in the opening stages of the match and goalkeeper Danny Ward was rarely troubled.
The second half began much the same as the first with both sides pushing for a goal but lacking creativity in the final third.
Yann Kermorgant, who has been sensational for the Royals throughout the campaign, was finally starting to find his feet at Wembley.
Reading had a final chance in the stoppage time but failed to convert it and the match headed to extra-time.
Both teams failed to come close to netting a winner in extra-time and the tie was left to be decided through penalties.
Nahki Wells came close after a fine Huddersfield break in the 116th minute and a Lowe free-kick just evaded team-mates as the match went to penalties.
Yann Kermorgant and Danny Williams scored to sandwich Lowe’s successful spot-kick before Hefele was denied by Ali Al-Habsi, who took a step forward during the stuttering run-up.
Liam Kelly and Wells scored before Moore blazed his penalty over and after star turn Mooy made it 3-3, the Huddersfield faithful were soon cheering again as Obita was denied by Ward.
Schindler stepped up and slotted home the decisive penalty, securing promotion and his place in Huddersfield folklore.
As for Reading, it was a record-equalling fourth play-off final defeat.
