VocerisSpeaking rate test
Read the passage below out loud at your normal pace. You'll see how many words per minute you speak, how often you pause, and how that compares with typical speakers.
Read this out loud, as if you were explaining it to a friend:"Last year I decided to learn something completely new, so I signed up for a weekend pottery class. I expected it to be relaxing. It wasn't, at least not at first. My first bowl collapsed in about ten seconds, and the second one looked more like a hat. But the teacher told us something I still think about. She said the clay always shows you exactly what your hands are doing, even when your head is somewhere else. By the end of the month I could make a simple cup, and more importantly, I had learned to slow down and pay attention. Now, whenever work gets busy, I try to remember that lesson and focus on one thing at a time."
Your words appear here.
Press start, read the whole passage, then press done.
Typical conversation 120–160 words per minute
Timing and pauses are measured in this browser tab. Nothing is recorded to a file or uploaded.
Free-talk mode uses your browser's built-in speech recognition, which may send audio to your browser's maker to transcribe it. Voceris doesn't receive or store it.
How the test works
The passage is 121 words. The test listens through your microphone, starts the clock at your first word and stops it at your last, so the time you take to press the buttons doesn't count. Your speaking rate is the number of words divided by that time.
While you read, it also marks every silence longer than a third of a second as a pause. Pauses are not a bad thing: they give listeners time to process and make you sound in control. Very few pauses usually means you're rushing.
In free-talk mode (Chrome, Edge and Safari), your browser transcribes what you say for 30 seconds, and the test counts the words and the filler words: um, uh, er, like, you know, I mean, basically, actually, literally, kind of and sort of.
What is a normal speaking rate?
Conversational English is commonly measured at about 120 to 160 words per minute. Reading a script aloud usually runs a little faster than talking freely.
| Words per minute | How it usually comes across |
|---|---|
| Under 110 | Slow; can sound hesitant or tired |
| 110–130 | Calm and deliberate; good for important or complex points |
| 130–160 | Natural conversational pace; most talks and podcasts sit here |
| 160–180 | Fast and energetic; fine in short bursts |
| Over 180 | Rushed; listeners start to miss words, especially on calls |
How to slow down when you talk fast
- Pause at every full stop. Read the passage again and take a silent one-beat breath at each period. Most fast talkers fix half the problem this way.
- Land the last word. Rushed speech swallows sentence endings. Say the final word of each sentence fully and let your pitch fall.
- Stress one word per sentence. It forces you to think about meaning, which naturally slows you down. See how to stop sounding monotone.
How to cut filler words
Fillers mostly appear when you're deciding what to say next. The fix is to make the silence acceptable: when you feel an "um" coming, close your mouth and pause instead. A half-second pause sounds confident to the listener even though it feels long to you. The 3-week plan to stop saying um walks through it step by step, and how to sound more confident covers pace and pauses together.
Want to check the other side of your voice? Try the voice pitch test to see your average pitch and how expressive you sound, or the vocal range test to find your lowest and highest notes.
Questions
What is a normal speaking rate?
Conversational English is commonly measured at about 120 to 160 words per minute. Presentations and audiobooks usually sit around 140 to 160. Below about 110 tends to sound slow or hesitant, and above about 170 can be hard to follow, especially for non-native listeners.
What is a good words per minute for public speaking?
Around 130 to 150 words per minute works for most talks and presentations. More important than the average is variety: slow down and pause around your key points, and speed up slightly through familiar material.
How many filler words is normal?
Most people use a few filler words per minute in casual conversation. In presentations, listeners start to notice at roughly one filler every 10 to 15 seconds. The goal is not zero, it is replacing most fillers with short, silent pauses.
Why did the filler counter miss some of my ums?
Browser speech recognition is built to produce clean text, so it often drops um and uh from the transcript. Treat the filler count as a minimum. Words like like, you know, basically and actually are counted more reliably.
Is my recording uploaded?
In the reading test, no: timing and pauses are measured in your browser with the Web Audio API and nothing leaves your device. Free-talk mode uses your browser's built-in speech recognition, which may send audio to your browser's maker (for example Google or Apple) to produce the transcript. Voceris does not receive or store it.