How long does a script take to say?
Divide the word count by your speaking pace in words a minute. Most people speak at a normal pace somewhere in the middle, slower on a training video and faster on a short clip. Paste your script above, pick a pace, and the calculator does the division for you, rounded so it never pretends to be exact.
Who it is for
Anyone writing words to be spoken: a video script, a voiceover, a talk, a pitch or a podcast intro that has to land inside a time limit.
What you need
The script, or a draft of it. No sign-up, no card and no download.
What it costs
Nothing. It runs in your browser and there is nothing to count.
What it does not do
It does not record you, read the words aloud, or shorten the script for you. The time is an estimate, and your own pace on the day decides the real one.
Paste it, then pick a pace.
Speaking time calculator
Paste the words you plan to say. Nothing is sent anywhere.
150 words a minute, the pace a talking-head video is planned at.
Paste a script to see how long it runs out loud.
A one-minute video fits about 150 words at this pace.
Which pace to pick.
The same script can run long or short depending on who reads it and for whom. Pick the pace that matches the video, not the one that makes the number look good.
- Normal. 150 words a minute. It is the pace the Studio uses to work out how long a talking-head video will run, so a script timed here and a script timed there agree.
- Slow. For training, onboarding, a dense subject or an audience listening in a second language. Pauses count as time, and a slow read has more of them.
- Fast. For short social clips where energy matters more than detail. Fast is easy to overdo: if you can hear yourself rushing, the script is too long, not too slow.
When the number is too big.
Most scripts come in long. Cut the warm-up first: the sentence that says what you are about to say is usually the easiest one to lose. Then cut adjectives, then the second example when one would do.
Read the cut version out loud once before you trust the number. Words that look short on the page can be hard to say, and a line you trip on costs more time than a long one you say cleanly.
Need the words written in the first place? The free video script generator drafts one from a short brief, and you can time it here after.
Once the length is right.
Filming it yourself? The free teleprompter scrolls the same script at your pace so your eyes stay near the lens.
Would rather not film it at all? A Digital Twin reads the script in your face and your voice, and the Studio shows the run time while you type, at the same pace this page calls normal. What a Render costs is on the pricing page.
What this page does not do.
It does not record you or read the words aloud.
It does arithmetic on the words you paste. To read them to camera, use the teleprompter.
It does not shorten the script for you.
It tells you the length. The cutting is yours, and the section above has the order we would do it in.
It gives an estimate, not a stopwatch.
The time is rounded and assumes an even pace. Pauses, emphasis and the way you breathe all move the real number, so leave a little room.
Questions people ask about speaking time.
- How many words is a one-minute video?
- At a normal pace, about 150 words. Pick Slow or Fast in the calculator and the line under the result shows how many fit at that pace instead.
- Does it count pauses?
- Not as separate items. The pace already allows for the small breaks between sentences. If you plan a long, deliberate pause, add that time yourself.
- Is my script sent anywhere?
- No. The counting happens in this tab and nothing is sent or kept. Close the tab and the words are gone.
- Do I need an account?
- No. There is no sign-up, no card and no trial. You only need an account if you decide to make the video with us afterwards.
- Why is the time rounded?
- Because nobody reads at a perfectly even pace. A rounded estimate is honest about that, and a figure to the exact second would only look more precise than it is.
The tools that do this
Time it, cut it, then say it.
Get the script to the length you need here, then film it with the teleprompter or let your Digital Twin read it in the Studio.