Key takeaways
- Words = minutes × pace. At 150 words a minute, 1 minute is 150 words, 5 minutes 750 and 10 minutes 1,500.
- Pace moves the answer: at a slow 130 or a fast 170 words a minute, a 5-minute speech is 650 or 850 words.
- Time yourself instead of trusting an average: read about 300 words aloud and divide by the minutes it took.
- Live speeches run longer than their word count, because pauses, slides and laughter take time. Write a little short.
- For a narrated video, 150 words is about a minute: VidMyth times and quotes every script at that pace.
How many words per minute: the chart
To find how many words a speech needs, multiply its length in minutes by the speaking pace. At a natural pace of 150 words a minute, every minute needs 150 words of script. At a slow 130 words a minute the same minute needs fewer, and at a fast 170 it needs more. The chart works it out for common speech and video lengths.
| Length | Slow (130 wpm) | Natural (150 wpm) | Fast (170 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 seconds | 65 | 75 | 85 |
| 1 minute | 130 | 150 | 170 |
| 2 minutes | 260 | 300 | 340 |
| 3 minutes | 390 | 450 | 510 |
| 5 minutes | 650 | 750 | 850 |
| 7 minutes | 910 | 1,050 | 1,190 |
| 10 minutes | 1,300 | 1,500 | 1,700 |
| 15 minutes | 1,950 | 2,250 | 2,550 |
| 20 minutes | 2,600 | 3,000 | 3,400 |
| 30 minutes | 3,900 | 4,500 | 5,100 |
| 45 minutes | 5,850 | 6,750 | 7,650 |
| 60 minutes | 7,800 | 9,000 | 10,200 |
The three paces are planning figures, not measurements of you. Anyone can speak faster or slower than these on purpose, and the same person speaks at different paces for a toast, a lecture and a voiceover. Plan with the natural column, then time a rehearsal and adjust. How to do that is further down.
How many words in a 5-minute speech?
About 750 words. That is five minutes at 150 words a minute. If you speak slowly, or the speech has pauses for slides or laughter, plan on about 650. If you speak quickly, it can stretch to about 850.
750 words is room for one clear message and three supporting points. Here is a plan that adds up to exactly 750:
- Opening, about 100 words (40 seconds): who you are, why the topic matters to this audience, and what you'll cover.
- Three points, about 175 words each (1 minute 10 seconds each): one idea per point, each backed by one example, number or story.
- Close, about 125 words (50 seconds): the message again in one sentence, and what you want the audience to do next.
Write it slightly short. A 5-minute slot usually means five minutes from your first word to your last, and nerves, pauses and applause all eat into it. Writing to about four and a half minutes, roughly 675 words, leaves room to breathe.
How many words for a 1-, 3-, 10- or 20-minute speech?
A 1-minute speech: about 150 words
One idea, one example, one ask. A one-minute speech is an introduction, a toast, a pitch or a quick update. There's no time for a list, so say the point, back it with one concrete detail, and finish.
A 3-minute speech: about 450 words
Three minutes suits a short presentation, a toast or a pitch with a little more to it: a brief opening, two points and a close. At a slow pace it is nearer 390 words, which is the safer plan if you'll be nervous.
A 10-minute speech: about 1,500 words
Ten minutes is a full talk: an opening, four or five points and a close. 1,500 words at one even pace is a lot to hold an audience with, so vary it with a story, a question or a deliberate pause. If you'll show slides, plan nearer 1,300 words.
A 20-minute speech: about 3,000 words
Twenty minutes is a lecture or a keynote. Few speakers get through 3,000 words without stopping, so plan on about 2,600 and spend the spare minutes on pauses or a question from the room. A 30-minute talk is about 4,500 words at the same pace.
How long is a speech of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 words?
Turn it around: divide the words by the pace. At 150 words a minute, 500 words takes about 3 minutes 20 seconds, 1,000 words about 6 minutes 40 seconds and 2,000 words about 13 minutes 20 seconds.
| Words | Slow (130 wpm) | Natural (150 wpm) | Fast (170 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0:46 | 0:40 | 0:35 |
| 250 | 1:55 | 1:40 | 1:28 |
| 500 | 3:51 | 3:20 | 2:56 |
| 750 | 5:46 | 5:00 | 4:25 |
| 1,000 | 7:42 | 6:40 | 5:53 |
| 1,500 | 11:32 | 10:00 | 8:49 |
| 2,000 | 15:23 | 13:20 | 11:46 |
| 2,500 | 19:14 | 16:40 | 14:42 |
| 3,000 | 23:05 | 20:00 | 17:39 |
| 4,500 | 34:37 | 30:00 | 26:28 |
For your own text, paste it into the free script timer. It counts the words, shows the running time at each pace, and tells you whether the script fits a Short or a long-form video. Nothing you paste leaves your browser.
What is a normal speaking rate?
There's no single normal rate. How fast someone speaks depends on the person, the material and the room. A toast runs quicker than a lesson, and a technical explanation runs slower than a story. Published averages differ depending on who was measured and what they were saying, so treat any one number as a starting point.
- Slow, about 130 words a minute: calm narration, stories for children, lessons, dense or technical material, and listeners hearing you in a second language.
- Natural, about 150 words a minute: most talks, explainers and voiceovers. It's the pace VidMyth times narrated videos at.
- Fast, about 170 words a minute: energetic delivery, quick updates, and Shorts that have to land in seconds.
Faster isn't better. A speaker who rushes loses the audience at exactly the moments that need a pause: a key number, a punchline, a question. If you speed up when you're nervous, plan at the slow pace and let the nerves make up the difference.
How to measure your own words per minute
Your own pace beats any average, and it takes a few minutes to find.
- Take about 300 words you would actually say: a page of your speech or script.
- Count the words. The script timer counts them for you.
- Start a timer and read the passage aloud, standing, at the pace you'd use for the audience. Reading silently is much faster and tells you nothing.
- Divide the words by the minutes it took. 300 words in 2 minutes 15 seconds is 300 ÷ 2.25, about 133 words a minute.
- Do it twice more and take the average. Then plan every speech with your own number.
Record yourself if you can. The playback shows where you rushed and where a pause would help, which matters as much as the number itself.
Why speeches run longer than their word count
A word count measures the words, not the silence between them. In a live speech, time goes to things a script doesn't count:
- Pauses for emphasis, which good speakers use on purpose.
- Slides: switching, pointing and waiting while the room reads.
- Laughter and applause, which you can't rush.
- Asides: the extra sentence you add because the room reacted.
- Questions, if you take them during the talk.
A narrated video is the opposite. The voice runs straight through, with only short pauses at full stops and paragraph breaks. That's why a video script can be timed closely from its word count, while a speech needs slack.
Words per minute for YouTube videos and voiceovers
Plan narration for a video at a natural 150 words a minute. That's the pace VidMyth's video engine times every script at, so 150 words of script is about a minute of finished video. A 10-minute long-form video holds about 1,500 words, from a script of up to 9,000 characters. A 60-second Short holds about 150 words, from up to 1,000 characters.
YouTube itself allows Shorts of up to 3 minutes (YouTube Help), though most land well under one. The YouTube Shorts length guide covers the limits, and the video script template gives a structure that keeps a script to its length.
To turn a timed script into a video, paste it into the studio. 6 AI agents plan the scenes, narrate the script, add captions and music, and hand back the finished video. If you don't have a script yet, the YouTube script writer drafts one from a title and a hook.
How to keep a speech to time on the day
- Mark the halfway point in your notes with the time you should reach it: two and a half minutes into a 5-minute speech.
- Decide in advance which point you'll drop if you're running over, so you can skip it without losing your place.
- Rehearse with a timer at least twice, out loud and at full volume.
- Keep the closing lines where you can find them. If time runs out, go straight to them.
If you have to cut while you're still writing, drop the weakest point whole rather than trimming every sentence. Fewer ideas, each explained properly, beat the same ideas squeezed into less time.
Questions
How many words is a 5-minute speech?
About 750 words at a natural 150 words a minute. Plan on about 650 if you speak slowly or pause often, and up to 850 if you speak quickly.
How many words is a 10-minute speech?
About 1,500 words at a natural pace, 1,300 read slowly and 1,700 read fast. With slides or questions from the audience, plan nearer the lower figure.
How many words is a 2-minute speech?
About 300 words at 150 words a minute. That's enough for one point with an example, or a short introduction and a single request.
How long does it take to read 2,000 words aloud?
About 13 minutes 20 seconds at 150 words a minute: around 15 minutes read slowly and 12 read fast.
What is a good speaking rate for a presentation?
One the audience can follow without effort. Around 150 words a minute suits most talks. Slow down for dense or technical material, a large room, and listeners hearing the talk in a second language.
How many words per minute is a YouTube voiceover?
There's no fixed rate, but a natural pace keeps narration clear. VidMyth times every script at 150 words a minute, so a 10-minute video is about 1,500 words and a 60-second Short about 150.