Words to minutes
How long your text runs read aloud, or how many words you need for your slot.
If you have ten minutes to speak, the question is not how much you want to say but how much fits. A comfortable presentation pace sits around 140 words per minute in English, slower than ordinary conversation, because the room needs time to process.
Reading silently is considerably faster: between 200 and 260 words per minute for an adult on text of average difficulty. That is why the same article reads in five minutes and takes ten to tell.
Pace also shifts with language. Spanish and Japanese are pronounced at more syllables per second than English or Chinese, but each syllable carries less information: the amount of content delivered per minute ends up similar even though the word count does not.
How to use it
- 01 Choose whether you want the length of your text or the words you need.
- 02 Enter the word count, or the minutes you have.
- 03 Adjust language and the pace you will speak at.
Frequently asked questions
What pace should I use for a presentation?
The normal one, around 140 words per minute in English. Nerves tend to speed you up, so if you plan tight you will most likely finish early rather than run over.
And for a video or a podcast?
A bit faster there, 150 to 165 words per minute, because listeners can rewind and there is no room to hold.
Does it count pauses?
The measured pace already leaves room to breathe and for natural pauses. If your script has deliberate long silences, add them separately.
Can I use it for subtitles?
For a rough total, yes. To check whether each cue can be read in time, use the subtitle checker, which measures characters per second.
Related tools
This is what Eco does live.
These utilities work on files you already have. Eco transcribes and translates while the audio is still playing: meetings, classes, videos in another language.
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