Speech length calculator: minutes to words, and back
Type a time slot to get a word count, or paste a script to see how long it takes to read aloud. A 3-minute speech is about 450 words in English at a natural pace; the calculator does every other length, at three paces, in eleven writing systems.
The rates are the ones the Orate teleprompter uses to estimate read time and set its starting scroll speed. They are sensible defaults rather than measurements of you: read a passage aloud for twenty seconds, count the words, multiply by three, and that is your own rate. How many words is a 2, 3 or 5-minute speech explains where each column comes from, and teleprompter speed by language why the language changes the answer. Once the script fits, the speech timer checks a rehearsal against the slot.
Speech length to word count, in English
| Length | Slow (120) | Natural (150) | Fast (180) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 minute | 120 | 150 | 180 |
| 2 minutes | 240 | 300 | 360 |
| 3 minutes | 360 | 450 | 540 |
| 4 minutes | 480 | 600 | 720 |
| 5 minutes | 600 | 750 | 900 |
| 7 minutes | 840 | 1,050 | 1,260 |
| 10 minutes | 1,200 | 1,500 | 1,800 |
| 15 minutes | 1,800 | 2,250 | 2,700 |
| 20 minutes | 2,400 | 3,000 | 3,600 |
Take the slow column for a speech to a live room, where you pause for laughter and questions, and the natural one for a video, where you talk to a lens that does not react. Numbers, names and pauses you have not written down all add time, so aim about ten percent under the slot.
Rates by language
| Writing system | Per minute | 3 minutes | 5 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Indonesian and other Latin-script languages | 150 words | 450 | 750 |
| Hindi, Marathi (Devanagari) | 130 words | 390 | 650 |
| Bengali | 130 words | 390 | 650 |
| Arabic | 130 words | 390 | 650 |
| Hebrew | 130 words | 390 | 650 |
| Russian (Cyrillic) | 130 words | 390 | 650 |
| Tamil | 115 words | 345 | 575 |
| Telugu | 115 words | 345 | 575 |
| Vietnamese | 200 words | 600 | 1,000 |
| Chinese, Japanese | 250 characters | 750 | 1,250 |
| Thai | 250 characters | 750 | 1,250 |
Chinese, Japanese and Thai are not written with spaces between words, so they are counted in characters, and their numbers are not comparable with the word rates above. Vietnamese writes a space after every syllable, which is why its rate looks high. A Tamil or Telugu word carries several syllables, so fewer of them fit in a minute; the 500-words post works through what that does to a real script.
Questions people ask
How many words is a 3-minute speech?
About 450 words in English at a natural 150 words per minute. For a live room, where you pause for reactions, plan on about 360 to 390; for brisk narration, up to 540.
How many words is a 5-minute speech?
About 750 words in English at 150 words per minute, or 600 at a careful 120 and 900 at a fast 180. In Hindi it is about 650 words, and in Tamil about 575.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words aloud?
About 6 minutes 40 seconds in English at 150 words per minute. At a slower 120 it takes 8 minutes 20 seconds; in Tamil, at 115, about 8 minutes 42 seconds.
Why does the language change the answer?
Because a word is not the same size in every language. Tamil and Telugu pack several syllables into one word, so fewer words fit in a minute, and Chinese, Japanese and Thai are not split into words at all, so they are counted in characters instead.
Read it off the lens, at the pace you just worked out
Orate scrolls your script right under the front camera at a speed worked out from its language, and you adjust it mid-take. Free, no account, no watermark.
See how Orate works