Words to Time Calculator

Divide the word count by your speaking pace in words per minute, then multiply by 60 for seconds. One thousand words at 130 words per minute is 1,000 divided by 130, times 60, which equals 7 minutes 42 seconds. The calculator runs this the moment you type, and it works in reverse too, turning a target duration into a word budget.

About 3 minutes 51 seconds when spoken at 130 words per minute. Read aloud at the 183 words per minute measured in Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis, it is closer to 2 minutes 44 seconds. Read silently at 238 words per minute, the same 500 words takes about 2 minutes 6 seconds.

It depends what you mean by speaking. Ordinary conversation runs considerably faster than a prepared talk. Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies measured reading aloud at 183 words per minute and silent reading of non-fiction at 238. The 110 to 160 words per minute range this site offers is a planning range for scripted delivery, not a measurement of everyday speech.

At the 130 words-per-minute planning pace, 130 words. At a deliberate 110 it is about 110 words, and at a brisk 160 it is about 160. Measured conversational speech runs faster than all of these. If you only need a rough figure, 130 words per minute is a safe planning default.

Usually because pauses, slides, audience reaction and finding your place are not in the word count. The estimate also assumes steady delivery from the first word to the last. Rehearse the whole script with a timer rather than reading the first paragraph, because people tend to start fast and then settle.

It looks at the script you pasted for five things no timing calculator reports: runs of words with no punctuation long enough to run out of breath, filler words and what removing them would save you, words that are hard to say cleanly, numbers that are easy to rush or misread, and sentences heavy enough to slow delivery. Every finding links to the exact line in your script.

No. Counting, timing and every Delivery Coach check run in your browser using JavaScript on your own device. Nothing is sent to a server, and the optional local draft never leaves your browser storage.

Speaking time is how long the text takes to deliver out loud. Silent reading time is how long it takes to read with your eyes, which is faster because your eyes move quicker than your mouth. The same thousand words is about 7 minutes 42 seconds spoken at 130 words per minute and about 4 minutes 12 seconds read silently at 238.

Use the Test My Pace control on this page. It uses your browser speech recognition to count the words you say during a ten to fifteen second read, then divides by the elapsed time to give your real rate. Speak in the way you would deliver, not the way you would chat. Audio is processed by the browser and never recorded or stored.

Because they are not research averages. The 110, 130 and 160 words-per-minute options are planning paces chosen to show how much delivery pace moves a total, and they are labelled as planning values. The measured figures used for reading modes come from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis and are cited with their sample size in the pace reference on the home page.

Yes. Pick the brisk pace for video and voiceover scripts where delivery is usually faster than presenting, and measure yourself once with the pace test before you commit. The telemetry area also gives you word count, character count and section-by-section timings, which is what you need when a script has to fit an edit.