Script timer
Paste your script to see how long it takes to say. Nothing leaves this page.
Need a word budget?
fits about 300 words at 150 a minute
Type minutes and seconds, such as 1:30, or minutes, such as 2.
Spoken time is your word count divided by your pace
The timer counts the words in your script and divides by the pace you pick. 300 words at 150 words a minute take 2 minutes. 150 words at 120 a minute take 1 minute 15 seconds. The word budget runs the same sum backwards: 2 minutes at 150 a minute fits 300 words.
About 150 words a minute is the figure most often given for everyday American English conversation. Professional audiobook narrators record about 9,300 words an hour, which is about 155 a minute (ACX). Your own pace can sit well above or below either. The words-per-minute guide explains where these numbers come from and gives a table of word counts by video length.
Find your own pace in one minute
- Set a timer for one minute and read your script aloud, at the pace you would use on camera.
- Count the words you got through. That count is your pace in words a minute.
- Pick Custom pace above and set it to that number.
Sample: a 61-word script takes about 24 seconds at 150 a minute
Clients ask me one question a lot. Here is my answer, in one minute. Start with the result they want, then work back to the price. One session, one outcome. Price the outcome, not the hour. That way a good week is not capped by how many hours you have. Try it with your next client. Tell me how it goes.
This sample has 61 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 24 seconds; at 120 a minute, about 31 seconds.
The timer counts words, not pauses
A pause for effect, a slide change or a demo adds time the word count can't see. So do numbers, names and long words, which take longer to say than they look. Treat the result as a floor and add a few seconds for each planned pause. To set a teleprompter's scroll speed from this number, see how to use a teleprompter.