Words per minute speaking: average rates and a speech length chart

What is the average speaking rate?

Most guides put conversational English at roughly 120 to 160 words per minute (wpm), with around 150 often quoted as typical, and recommend about 130 to 150 wpm for presentations. When researchers measure real, relaxed conversations, the numbers come out faster, because people chatting informally talk quicker than anyone giving a talk.

Two measured examples from American English telephone conversations:

• In an analysis of 11,700 conversation sides from the Fisher corpus, linguist Mark Liberman found a mean of about 173 wpm with a standard deviation of about 27. Men and women were almost identical (about 174 vs 173 wpm among native speakers).
• Yuan, Liberman and Cieri (2006) measured the Switchboard corpus three ways: 164 wpm per speaker turn, 196 wpm counting both speakers over the elapsed time, and 236 wpm once silences were removed. They also found that older people speak more slowly, men slightly faster than women, and that people talk more slowly with strangers than with friends and family.

The lesson is that "average speaking rate" depends heavily on what you count. Rates that include pauses (speaking rate) are much lower than rates that exclude them (articulation rate). A presentation is also not a phone chat with a friend, so conversation averages are a poor target for a talk.

Speaking rate by context

Different situations call for different speeds. The figures below are common guidance from speaking coaches and narration guides rather than measured norms, so use them as a starting point and adjust for your audience, room and material.

At the extreme end, Guinness World Records lists Sean Shannon's 1995 recitation of Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy at 655 words per minute. Nobody needs to follow that at a team meeting.

How long is a speech? Words per minute chart

To time a speech, divide the word count by your speaking rate. At a measured 130 wpm, a 1,000-word speech takes about 7 minutes 40 seconds; at 150 wpm, about 6 minutes 40 seconds. Plan with the slower figure, because pauses, emphasis and audience reactions always add time.

Working the other way, from a script you have already written:

A few practical rules: a 30-second elevator pitch is about 65 to 75 words, a 3-to-5-minute wedding toast is about 400 to 750 words, and reading a script aloud usually runs a little faster than talking freely, so time a full rehearsal rather than trusting the arithmetic.

How to measure your speaking rate

The simplest method is to time yourself reading a passage of known length, or to count the words in a one-minute recording of yourself talking. Measure both, because your reading rate and your free-speech rate are often quite different, and free speech is what listeners actually hear.

1. Use the free test (1 minute). The speaking rate test has you read a 121-word passage aloud. It starts the clock at your first word and stops at your last, then shows your words per minute and pauses per minute, counting any silence longer than a third of a second as a pause. The reading test runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
2. Try free talk (30 seconds). The same page has a 30-second free-talk mode that counts your words and filler words. It uses your browser's built-in speech recognition, which may send audio to your browser's maker to transcribe it.
3. Do it by hand (5 minutes). Record yourself talking for 60 seconds about your day, transcribe it with your phone's dictation, and count the words. Repeat three times and take the middle value.

If you want pace tracked alongside the rest of your delivery, Voceris scores pace and pauses as separate measures from a 15-to-35-second recording, together with filler words, clarity and volume.

Why pauses matter more than words per minute

Two speakers at 150 wpm can sound completely different: one rushed, one calm and in control. The difference is almost always pausing. Listeners need short silences to process each idea, and well-placed pauses make a fast talker easy to follow and a moderate one sound confident.

Think of your pace as two numbers. Your articulation rate is how fast you say the words themselves; your speaking rate includes the silences. The Switchboard figures above show how big that gap can be: 196 wpm with pauses counted, 236 without. A speaker with a brisk articulation rate who pauses well sounds energetic. The same speaker with no pauses sounds breathless.

Where pauses help most:

• After a key point, so it lands before you move on.
• Before a number, name or punchline, to signal that something important is coming.
• Between sections, as audible paragraph breaks.
• Instead of a filler. A half-second silence sounds deliberate; "um" sounds unsure. See how to stop saying um.

Variety matters too. A single constant speed, fast or slow, is hard to listen to for long. Speed up a little through familiar material and slow down noticeably for the point you want remembered.

How to adjust your speaking rate

First decide whether your problem is speed, pausing, or both: measure, then change one thing at a time. Most people who are told they talk too fast actually need more pauses rather than slower words, and most people who sound slow need fewer fillers rather than more speed.

If you talk too fast

Signs: people ask you to repeat yourself, you run short of breath mid-sentence, the ends of your sentences disappear, or you measure above about 170 wpm in a presentation. Start by pausing at every full stop and landing the last word of each sentence. The full set of drills and a 7-day plan are in how to speak slower.

If you talk too slowly

Under about 110 wpm, speech can sound hesitant or tired. Usually the cause is not slow words but long hesitations and fillers while you search for the next idea. Plan your first sentence, use shorter sentences, cut the "ums," and raise your energy slightly. Our guide on how to sound more confident when speaking covers the steady, falling sentence endings that make a measured pace sound assured rather than unsure.

For presentations

Write your script to about 130 wpm for the time slot, mark where you will pause, and rehearse the full talk with a timer at least twice. If you finish well under time, you are rushing. For structure, openings and handling nerves, see our public speaking tips.