The average speaking pace
Most speakers, in a natural conversational tone, speak at roughly 120–150 words per minute. This is noticeably slower than silent reading speed (around 200–250 words per minute), which is exactly why a script that "reads" quickly in your head often runs long once you actually say it out loud, with natural pauses, emphasis, and breathing.
Pace by context
- Formal presentations and speeches: 120–140 words per minute — slower, to let key points land and to sound deliberate rather than rushed.
- Conversational or podcast-style speaking: 140–160 words per minute — closer to natural conversation pace.
- Auctioneers and fast announcers: 250–400+ words per minute — a deliberately extreme outlier, not a target for normal speaking.
- Audiobook narration: roughly 150–160 words per minute, chosen for comfortable, sustained listening.
Why scripts run longer than expected
A script that reads smoothly and quickly in your head skips over the pauses you'll naturally add when actually speaking: breathing, emphasis on key words, brief pauses after important points, and slight hesitations are all invisible on the page but add real time when delivered aloud. This is the single biggest reason a "5-minute" script often runs 6–8 minutes in practice.
How to time a script accurately
- Count the total words in your script.
- Divide by a conservative pace — 130 words per minute is a safe estimate for most formal speaking contexts.
- Read the script aloud once, at your natural pace, with a timer running.
- Compare the actual time to your estimate, and adjust your assumed words-per-minute rate for future scripts based on your own natural pace.
Everyone's natural pace differs slightly, so after timing yourself once or twice, you'll have a much more accurate personal benchmark than any general average.
Cutting a script that runs too long
If your timed read is running over, the fastest fix isn't speaking faster — it's cutting content. Look for repeated points, transitional phrases that don't add information ("as I mentioned earlier"), and examples that could be trimmed to one instead of two or three.
Check your script's estimated time
Paste your script into the WordlyCounter word counter, which calculates estimated speaking time (at 130 words per minute) alongside reading time, word count, and character count — giving you a quick benchmark before you do a live timed read-through.