Speeches and toasts
Wedding toasts, eulogies and keynotes usually have a hard time slot. Check the length before you rehearse, then cut or add a paragraph.
Free tool
Words to Minutes Calculator for Speeches, Scripts and Audiobooks
Enter a word count or paste your text, choose a speaking pace and this words to minutes calculator shows how long it takes to read aloud. It works for a two minute speech, a podcast script or a full audiobook chapter.
Narration time
9:41
9.7 minutes at 155 words per minute
Finished audio
10 min
Pages (275 words)
5
The same text at other paces
- Slow (130)11:32
- Conversational (150)10:00
- Audiobook (155)9:41
- Fast (170)8:49
AI narration of 1,500 words costs about 77 credits with standard voices.
Turn it into an audiobookHow to use the words to minutes calculator
- 1
Add your words
Type a word count, or paste the text itself and the words are counted as you type. Nothing you paste leaves your browser.
- 2
Pick a pace
Choose slow, conversational, audiobook or fast, or drag the slider to any rate from 100 to 200 words per minute.
- 3
Read the result
See the spoken length as minutes and seconds, the same text at every preset pace, a page estimate and the AI narration credits it would take.
Words to minutes chart at three speaking paces
Quick answers for common lengths. Minutes are rounded to the nearest second.
| Words | 130 wpm (slow) | 150 wpm (average) | 170 wpm (fast) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0:46 | 0:40 | 0:35 |
| 500 | 3:51 | 3:20 | 2:56 |
| 1,000 | 7:42 | 6:40 | 5:53 |
| 1,500 | 11:32 | 10:00 | 8:49 |
| 2,500 | 19:14 | 16:40 | 14:42 |
| 5,000 | 38:28 | 33:20 | 29:25 |
| 10,000 | 1:16:55 | 1:06:40 | 58:49 |
| 80,000 | 10 h 15 min | 8 h 53 min | 7 h 51 min |
Have a whole manuscript? The audiobook length calculator converts words or pages into finished hours.
Typical speaking rates by situation
Pick the row closest to your use, then set the same pace in the calculator above.
| Situation | Words per minute | Why it lands there |
|---|---|---|
| Audiobook narration | 150 to 160 | Steady and clear, with room for character voices |
| Podcast conversation | 150 to 170 | Natural talk with asides and overlaps |
| Presentation with slides | 110 to 140 | Pauses while the audience reads each slide |
| News and radio reads | 160 to 180 | Tight scripts and trained delivery |
| Lecture or sermon | 110 to 130 | Emphasis and deliberate pauses |
| Bedtime story | 110 to 130 | Slow and soothing for young listeners |
| Sports call or auction | 200 and up | Speed is part of the style |
What people time with a words to minutes converter
Presentations
Slide talks run slower than you think because of pauses. Time them at 130 words per minute to leave room for questions.
Podcast and video scripts
Scripted episodes and YouTube voiceovers land around 150 to 160 words per minute. Plan a ten minute episode at about 1,500 words.
Audiobook chapters
Narrators read near 155 words per minute. A 4,000 word chapter becomes about 26 minutes of audio, a comfortable length for one sitting.
Radio and ad reads
A 30 second spot holds roughly 75 words, a 60 second spot about 150. Faster reads squeeze in more but sound rushed.
Text to speech budgets
TTS is billed by characters. The calculator turns words into characters and AI credits, so you can price a script before you generate it.
How to convert word count to minutes by hand
The formula is simple: minutes = words ÷ words per minute. At 150 words per minute, 1,200 words take 1,200 ÷ 150 = 8 minutes. For seconds, multiply the decimal part by 60, so 1,000 words at 150 words per minute is 6.67 minutes, or 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
The hard part is the pace, not the maths. Most people speak conversationally at 140 to 160 words per minute. Professional audiobook narrators settle around 150 to 160. Nervous speakers drift above 170, while lectures and sermons with long pauses fall to 110 to 130. When in doubt, use 150 and add ten percent for breathing room.
If a tool bills by characters, convert words to characters first. English averages about 5.7 characters per word including spaces, so 1,000 words is roughly 5,700 characters. That is the figure the words to minutes calculator uses to estimate AI narration credits.
Speaking time is not reading time
Silent reading is much faster than speech: adults read about 240 words per minute in their heads, against about 150 out loud. A chapter you skim in fifteen minutes can take twenty five to narrate. Always time spoken audio at a speaking pace, never a reading pace.
From words to minutes to a finished audiobook
Once you know the minutes, the next questions are usually how to split them and what they cost. The chapter length guide explains what listeners expect per chapter, and the audiobook cost calculator compares a human narrator with AI narration for the same running time.
To hear the result rather than estimate it, paste a chapter into the AI audiobook generator. It splits the text into chapters, gives every speaking character a separate AI voice and exports MP3 or a chaptered M4B, so the minutes on this page become real audio.
Words to minutes FAQ
How many minutes is 1,000 words?
About 6 minutes and 40 seconds at an average 150 words per minute, 7 minutes and 42 seconds at a slow 130, and just under 6 minutes at a fast 170.
How many words is a 10 minute speech?
Between 1,300 and 1,500 words for most speakers. Plan on 1,300 if you pause for laughs or slides, and 1,500 if you talk at a steady conversational pace.
How many words per minute is audiobook narration?
Most narrators read at 150 to 160 words per minute. The words to minutes calculator uses 155 as its audiobook preset, which matches a typical retail audiobook.
How long is a 5,000 word chapter as audio?
About 32 minutes at 155 words per minute. Chapters over an hour are worth splitting, because listeners tend to stop between chapters.
How do I turn characters into minutes?
Divide the characters by about 5.7 to get words, then divide by the words per minute. For example, 57,000 characters is about 10,000 words, or 1 hour and 5 minutes at 155 words per minute.
Is this words to minutes calculator free?
Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs entirely in your browser, including the text you paste to count.
Know the minutes? Now hear them.
Take the script you timed in the words to minutes calculator and narrate it with a full cast of AI voices.