Speech length, before you record
Words to Minutes Calculator
Speaking pace
Or a real voice, as measured
Estimated time at 130 wpm
0 sec
Convert words to time for a speech, a class presentation, a YouTube script, or a podcast segment. The estimate uses standard speaking speeds — or the measured pace of the AI voices on this site, so the number you plan around matches the audio you can actually generate.
Step 1
Paste your script — or just a word count
The word count updates as you type; there is nothing to submit.
Step 2
Pick a pace
Preset speaking speeds, silent reading, or the measured pace of a real AI voice.
Step 3
Read the time — or generate the exact one
The estimate is instant. For a runtime to the second, generate the audio below.
How the words-to-minutes conversion works
Speaking time is word count divided by pace: minutes = words ÷ words per minute. The whole question is which pace to divide by. Prepared talks run slower than conversation — slides, emphasis, and nerves all cost time — so planning guides settle on about 130 wpm for an average delivery, 100 wpm for a slow formal one, and 160 wpm for a quick conversational one.
Those three numbers are the presets above, and they match what teachers and speech coaches assume. If the time slot is strict — a 10-minute class presentation, a conference talk with a hard cutoff — write to the slow estimate and treat anything saved as breathing room, not as space for one more section.
Measured, not assumed
Real AI voice speeds, measured on this site's engines
Generic calculators stop at 100/130/160. We synthesized a fixed passage through our own free voices at default speed and timed the audio — because if you are converting words to minutes for a voiceover, the voice's real pace is the number that matters.
| Voice | Engine | Character | Measured wpm | 500 words takes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harper | Zonos | American, deliberate | 84 | 5:57 |
| Miles | Zonos | American, relaxed | 125 | 4:00 |
| Bella | Kokoro | Warm narration | 152 | 3:17 |
| Tara | Orpheus | Conversational | 157 | 3:11 |
| Dan | Orpheus | Casual, grounded | 157 | 3:11 |
| Emma | Kokoro | British, calm | 181 | 2:46 |
| Adam | Kokoro | Clear, confident | 187 | 2:40 |
Method: each voice read the same passage at default speed through our production engines on 2026-08-21; durations come from the audio files themselves. Kokoro voices read a 137-word passage; Orpheus and Zonos voices a 42-word one, because those APIs cap request length. The spread is the finding: the same 500 words runs 2:40 on Adam and 5:57 on Harper, which is why a one-number estimate can miss by a factor of two.
How many words is a speech of each length?
Working backwards from a time slot: multiply the minutes by your pace. At the standard 130 wpm, a 5-minute speech is about 650 words; a 10-minute one about 1,300.
| Speech length | Slow (100 wpm) | Average (130 wpm) | Fast (160 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 minute | 100 | 130 | 160 |
| 2 minutes | 200 | 260 | 320 |
| 3 minutes | 300 | 390 | 480 |
| 4 minutes | 400 | 520 | 640 |
| 5 minutes | 500 | 650 | 800 |
| 10 minutes | 1,000 | 1,300 | 1,600 |
| 15 minutes | 1,500 | 1,950 | 2,400 |
| 20 minutes | 2,000 | 2,600 | 3,200 |
| 30 minutes | 3,000 | 3,900 | 4,800 |
How long does each word count take to say?
The same conversion, forwards: divide the word count by the pace. These are clean estimates — pauses for slides, laughter, or emphasis add 10–15% in real delivery.
| Word count | Slow (100 wpm) | Average (130 wpm) | Fast (160 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 words | 2:30 | 1:55 | 1:34 |
| 500 words | 5:00 | 3:51 | 3:08 |
| 750 words | 7:30 | 5:46 | 4:41 |
| 1,000 words | 10:00 | 7:42 | 6:15 |
| 1,500 words | 15:00 | 11:32 | 9:23 |
| 2,000 words | 20:00 | 15:23 | 12:30 |
| 2,500 words | 25:00 | 19:14 | 15:38 |
| 5,000 words | 50:00 | 38:28 | 31:15 |
Estimate vs. exact
Stop estimating — generate the audio and read the runtime
Every calculator on this page gives you an approximation. This one can also give you the answer: turn the script into speech with a real voice, and the file's length is your exact duration. The sample below is the very passage our measurements used.
Speech studio
29 voices · 18 languages
Writing the script first? The AI speech writer drafts it to a target length, this page checks the timing, and the generator produces the audio — write, time, voice, in that order.
Frequently asked
How many words is a 5-minute speech?
About 650 words at an average speaking pace of 130 words per minute. A slow, formal delivery at 100 wpm needs about 500 words; a fast conversational one at 160 wpm fits about 800. Write toward the lower number if you expect pauses, slides, or audience reaction.
How many words is a 10-minute speech?
About 1,300 words at 130 words per minute — between 1,000 words (slow) and 1,600 words (fast). Past the ten-minute mark, build in a buffer: real deliveries almost always run longer than the clean estimate.
How long is a 1,000-word speech?
About 7 min 42 sec at an average 130 words per minute. At a slow 100 wpm it stretches to 10 minutes; at a fast 160 wpm it compresses to about 6 min 15 sec.
How many words per minute do people actually speak?
Conversation runs roughly 150–190 wpm; prepared talks and presentations sit lower, around 100–160, which is why 130 is the standard planning number. AI voices vary just as much: the free voices on this site measured between 84 and 187 wpm at default speed.
Is silent reading faster than reading aloud?
Yes, by a wide margin. A large meta-analysis of reading-rate studies (Brysbaert, 2019) puts average adult silent reading at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction, versus about 183 wpm reading aloud — and prepared speech is slower still. Use the silent-reading preset when estimating reading time for an article rather than a talk.
Why is my generated audio a different length than the estimate?
Because a words-per-minute estimate is an average and a voice is not. Our measured free voices range from 84 to 187 wpm at default speed, punctuation adds pauses, and numbers or URLs expand when spoken ("1,024" becomes five syllables). The estimate gets you close; generating the audio gives you the exact runtime.
Does the calculator upload my script?
No. Counting and the time estimate run entirely in your browser. Your text is only sent to the server if you choose to generate audio from it.
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