Speaking time calculator
Estimate how long a script takes to say aloud, at a pace you can change.
Paste the words you will actually say, not the stage directions, unless you speak those too.
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Speaking time
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The default pace is 150 words per minute, a planning figure for prepared speech. Pauses, laughter, and slides are not included.
—At 150 words per minute
The same word count at 238 words per minute silent reading is —. Open the reading time calculator.
How to use the speaking time calculator
- Paste the script, the remarks, or the voiceover. Leave out text you will not speak.
- Start at 150 words per minute, or choose Conversational (130) or Brisk (170) if you already know the delivery.
- Read one minute of the script aloud if you can. If you landed far from 150, type the pace you just measured.
- Use the hours, minutes, and seconds against the slot you were given. Then add time for anything that is not words.
A planning figure, not a performance
Prepared speech in English is often planned around 120 to 150 words per minute. One hundred and fifty is the default here because it is a clear presentation pace: slower than the 238 words per minute used for silent reading, fast enough that a five-minute slot is about 750 words. The sample passage on this page is 187 words, which is 1 minute 15 seconds at the default speaking pace. That same passage is shorter on the reading clock. The gap is the reason these are two URLs.
The word count is the site’s usual rule, shared with the word counter. Numbers count as words. A hyphenated compound counts once. Stage directions count if you leave them in the box, which is why the hint asks you to paste only what you will say. Parenthetical jokes you might cut should be cut before you trust the minute total.
Sentence length still matters when you are speaking. A script of short sentences is easier to breathe, even when the minute total matches a script of long ones. The sentence counter shows the average. It will not hear your pacing. Neither will this page.
What you still have to add yourself
A demo, a video, a walk to the next slide, and a question from the room are not in the formula. If the slot is ten minutes and the script calculates to nine, you do not have a spare minute until you have rehearsed the non-word parts. Some speakers deliberately leave a silence after a result. Type a slower pace, or shorten the script, rather than hoping 150 absorbs the silence. Brisk (170) is for a rehearsal that already came out fast. It is a poor choice for a first pass at a talk you have not said aloud.
Limitations
- The calculator does not model breaths, emphasis, or audience reaction. It is words at a constant pace.
- Languages that do not separate words with spaces will not produce a meaningful speaking time here.
- Pronunciation of names, numbers, and acronyms can be slower than the average word. “NASA” may be one word and four spoken beats.
- Paces are limited to 40–1,000 words per minute so a typo cannot divide by zero or invent a ten-hour reading of a paragraph.
Questions people ask
Why is the default 150 words per minute?
One hundred and fifty is a planning figure for prepared English speech: slow enough to be clear in a room, faster than a very deliberate keynote, slower than casual conversation. It is not a laboratory average of every speaker. Conversational (130) and Brisk (170) are the neighboring presets.
Should I paste the whole slide deck?
Paste the words you will say. Slide titles you will not read, and speaker notes you will skip, should stay out of the box. The calculator cannot see which lines you will actually deliver.
Does this include pauses and questions from the room?
No. The result is only the script at the pace you set, in hours, minutes, and seconds. Add your own buffer for a pause after a joke, a demo, or a question. A common rehearsal trick is to time one page aloud and then set the pace to the number you just measured.
How is this different from reading time?
Silent reading defaults to 238 words per minute because adults typically read non-fiction faster than they speak it. Using the reading figure for a talk will make you run long. The reading time calculator is the other page, with its own presets.
Is my script uploaded when I calculate the time?
No. The speaking time is computed in the browser from the word count. The script is not sent to a server to be timed.