Words to Minutes

About 650 at the standard 130 wpm planning pace — roughly 550 if you speak deliberately, 800 if you're fast. The table covers the common lengths: a 10-minute presentation runs ~1,300 words, a 20-minute talk ~2,600. TED coaches famously target 120–150 wpm because comprehension and presence beat speed.

Because the calculator times words, and delivery includes everything else: pauses for emphasis, breaths, slide transitions, laughter, glancing at notes. Live talks typically run 10–15% over a clean read-through. For hard limits — competitions, wedding toasts with a band waiting, conference slots — draft to 85–90% of the limit.

Slower than feels natural: nerves accelerate almost everyone, and 130 wpm — which feels slow from the podium — sounds composed to the audience. Practical technique: mark deliberate pause points in the script; pauses read as confidence and give listeners processing time, which speed steals.

No — silent reading averages 238 wpm, nearly double speech pace, which is why 'I read it in 3 minutes' becomes a 6-minute talk. Use the reading figure for estimating essays, articles, and scripts consumed as text; use speaking paces for anything delivered aloud, including video voiceovers.