MotionShineFree tool
Words to minutes, how long it takes to say.
Paste your script, speech or video voice-over and see how long it runs when spoken at a slow, average or fast pace. Better still, read a few lines aloud and measure your own pace. It also works the other way round: how many words fit a two-minute video or a five-minute talk.
Speaking pace
Your own pace
Press the button, read the script, or its first lines, aloud at your normal pace, then press it again.
Words for a set length
About ... at this pace
Your script stays in this tab. It is never uploaded.
Quick guide
Words for common lengths.
| Length | Slow, 110 a minute | Average, 140 a minute | Fast, 170 a minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 seconds | 55 | 70 | 85 |
| 1 minute | 110 | 140 | 170 |
| 2 minutes | 220 | 280 | 340 |
| 5 minutes | 550 | 700 | 850 |
| 10 minutes | 1,100 | 1,400 | 1,700 |
| 20 minutes | 2,200 | 2,800 | 3,400 |
Slow, average and fast are this page's round numbers for planning. Reading rates come from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review in the Journal of Memory and Language: 238 words a minute read silently (non-fiction) and 183 read aloud, averaged over many studies of adult English readers.
Questions
Good to know.
How many words is a 5 minute speech?
About 700 at an average pace of 140 words a minute, between 550 and 850 depending on how fast you speak. Measure your own pace on this page for a closer figure.
Why measure my own pace?
People differ a lot. A calm explainer may speak at 120 words a minute and a fast podcaster at 180 or more, which changes a ten-minute script by several minutes. Reading a few lines aloud gives a number that fits you.
Do pauses count?
Short pauses are part of a normal pace. Longer pauses, for slides, a demo on screen or a laugh, are not, so add time for them, or tick the pause option to add a moment at each new line.
How long should a tutorial video script be?
Write for the length you want, then check it here. Screen recordings also have quiet moments while things load or you type, so the video usually runs longer than the script alone.
Does it count words the same way as Word or Google Docs?
Very nearly. Words are letters and numbers joined together, so "don't" and "e-mail" count as one word each. Small differences in how hyphens and symbols are counted can move the total by a few words.