About the Speech Timer & Teleprompter
Every “words to minutes” page divides by 130 and calls it a day. The real spread of speaking rates is wide — conversational ~150 wpm, presentations 110–130 — and the only number that fits you is one you measure. So this tool includes a 30-second read-aloud test, and every estimate and the teleprompter’s scroll speed run on your measured rate from then on.
The teleprompter is the part the ad-sludge incumbents can’t match: fullscreen, mirror mode for beam-splitter rigs, font and speed controls, keyboard-driven, nothing uploaded anywhere — your script never leaves this browser.
Run the clock while you practise out loud. Tap “section done” at each paragraph break; the table shows elapsed versus target so you know exactly which sections run long.
Write [pause] for a 2-second beat or [pause:5] for
five seconds anywhere in the script. The estimate above includes them (0 pauses, 0:00),
and the teleprompter holds for exactly that long when one scrolls past the marker line.
Read this aloud at the pace you would actually present. Press Start, read to the end, press Done the moment you finish.
How to Use the Speech Timer & Teleprompter
Paste your script and the timing appears at three honest rates — slow, average, fast — plus whichever rate you set on the slider. Blank lines split paragraphs, and the timeline shows the clock reading at which each paragraph should end. Then measure your own rate with the 30-second read-aloud test: from that moment the headline estimate and the teleprompter both run on your number.
Words to Minutes, Without the False Precision
Speaking rate is a range, not a constant. Careful measurements of English speech put relaxed conversation near 150 words per minute, prepared presentations at 110–130, and professional narration around 150–160. Nerves push people faster; microphones and big rooms reward slower. A single “your speech is 6 minutes 12 seconds” figure pretends none of that exists — so this page gives the honest band, and offers the measurement that collapses it.
A Teleprompter That Respects Your Script
The prompter scrolls at a speed computed from your words-per-minute and your script’s actual rendered layout, so the pace matches the estimate to the second. Space bar pauses; arrow keys trim speed five percent at a press; M flips the display for beam-splitter rigs; F goes fullscreen. Nothing is uploaded — the script lives and dies in your browser tab, which is not something the ad-funded prompter sites can say.
Related tools: the Word Counter for the raw counts, the Reading Level Analyzer for whether the audience will follow it, and the Readability Editor for tightening it. Browse every Writing & Content tool for more.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words per minute is a speech?
Published measurements put conversational English around 150 words per minute, formal presentations at 110–130, and audiobook narration near 150–160. Nerves push most people faster; good speakers deliberately sit slower than feels natural. That spread is why this tool shows a range rather than one fake-precise number — and why the 30-second read-aloud test matters: your measured rate beats any population average, exactly the way a measured max beats a formula.
How long is a 500-word speech? A 1,000-word one?
At a presentation pace of 130 wpm: 500 words runs a little under 4 minutes; 1,000 words about 7½; 2,000 about 15. A five-minute slot fits roughly 600–700 words, a TED-length 18 minutes about 2,300. Then subtract for what scripts never include: pauses for laughter, slides, sips of water. Rehearsing once against the paragraph timeline is worth ten estimates.
What is mirror mode for?
Professional teleprompter rigs bounce the screen off angled beam-splitter glass in front of the lens, which flips the image left-to-right — so prompter software renders text mirrored, and the glass flips it back. If you have such a rig (or point a tablet at a mirror), turn mirror mode on. Reading straight off the screen, leave it off.
How do the teleprompter controls work?
Space pauses and resumes. Up and down arrows trim the speed by 5% per press — the readout shows the effective words per minute. F toggles fullscreen, M toggles mirror, Escape exits. The font slider changes size without changing the timing, because speed is computed in words per minute and converted to pixels using your actual script's layout.
Why does my measured rate differ from how fast I talk normally?
Reading aloud from a screen is its own skill — most people read 10–20% faster than they speak freely, then slow down again in front of an audience. The read-aloud test measures the mode you will actually be in while using the prompter, which is what the scroll speed needs. For a memorised, no-prompter speech, trust the rehearsal timer over the reading test.
