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Words to minutes

How long does it take to say?

Paste your script, or just a word count, and see speaking time at three honest paces. Most words to minutes calculators stop at the estimate; this one lets you press play and hear your opening read aloud, generated live. And if you turn the whole script into audio, about 1,000 characters is a minute.

Words
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Characters
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Slow · 110 wpm
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Conversational · 140 wpm
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Fast · 170 wpm
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Estimates. Real speech varies with pauses and delivery.

Generated live, free, no sign-in. The estimate above; this is the real thing.

The pill reads your first 280 characters, generated live by Gemini Flash.

Reverse lookup

How many words is an N-minute speech?

Working backwards from a time slot? These are the word counts to write toward: the same words to minutes math as the calculator above, run in reverse at the same three paces.

Speech lengthSlow · 110 wpmConversational · 140 wpmFast · 170 wpm
1 minute110140170
2 minutes220280340
3 minutes330420510
5 minutes550700850
10 minutes1,1001,4001,700
15 minutes1,6502,1002,550
20 minutes2,2002,8003,400
30 minutes3,3004,2005,100
45 minutes4,9506,3007,650
60 minutes6,6008,40010,200

Method: minutes times pace. Slow is 110 words per minute, conversational is 140, fast is 170. Most prepared talks land near conversational.

Straight answers

Speech timing, answered honestly.

How does a words to minutes calculator work?
It divides your word count by a speaking pace in words per minute. Ours shows three paces at once, slow (110), conversational (140), and fast (170), because a single number hides how much delivery changes the answer. Every words to minutes figure on this page comes from that one division, so the calculator and the table can never disagree.
How many words is a 5 minute speech?
About 700 words at a conversational 140 words per minute. Slow it to 110 and 5 minutes is about 550 words; at a fast 170 it covers about 850. Write inside that range, then rehearse once with a timer.
What speaking pace should I use?
Conversational (140 words per minute) fits most presentations, videos, and podcasts. Choose slow (110) for weddings, eulogies, and dense technical material, where pauses do real work. Fast (170) suits energetic explainers and ad reads. When in doubt, plan at conversational and leave room to breathe.
Is this the same as reading time?
No. Silent reading is faster than speech: most people read about 200 to 250 words per minute but speak closer to 140. A reading-time badge on an article will always show a shorter number than the speaking time here.
How accurate is this?
It is an estimate, and we label it that way. Real delivery shifts with pauses, emphasis, audience reaction, and how often you look up from the page. The three paces bracket most speakers; one rehearsal with a timer, or one real generated take, beats any calculator.
Can I hear it instead of estimating?
Yes. The Hear it read button above generates real audio of your opening lines, free and without signing in. For the full script, open Text to Speech: paste everything, pick a voice, and the length of the finished file is the real answer.

Stop estimating. Hear the whole thing.

Paste the full script into the studio, pick a voice, and the finished file answers the timing question for good. Free to start, no credit meter.

Open Text to SpeechAudiobook Studio