🎤 Voiceover Length Calculator
Estimate script duration by word count, speaking rate & delivery style
| Word Count | 100 WPM (slow) | 130 WPM (std) | 150 WPM (conv.) | 180 WPM (fast) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75 words | 0:45 | 0:35 | 0:30 | 0:25 |
| 150 words | 1:30 | 1:09 | 1:00 | 0:50 |
| 250 words | 2:30 | 1:55 | 1:40 | 1:23 |
| 400 words | 4:00 | 3:05 | 2:40 | 2:13 |
| 500 words | 5:00 | 3:51 | 3:20 | 2:47 |
| 750 words | 7:30 | 5:46 | 5:00 | 4:10 |
| 1,000 words | 10:00 | 7:41 | 6:40 | 5:33 |
| 1,500 words | 15:00 | 11:32 | 10:00 | 8:20 |
| Project Type | Target Duration | Typical WPM | Est. Word Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15-sec TV/Radio Spot | 15 seconds | 180 | ~45 words |
| 30-sec Commercial | 30 seconds | 150–180 | 75–90 words |
| 60-sec Commercial | 60 seconds | 150–160 | 150–160 words |
| 2-min Explainer | 2 minutes | 130–150 | 260–300 words |
| 5-min E-Learning | 5 minutes | 120–140 | 600–700 words |
| IVR Phone Prompt | 10–15 sec | 100–120 | 17–30 words |
| Audiobook Page | ~1.5 minutes | 130–150 | ~250 words |
| Documentary Min. | 1 minute | 130–140 | 130–140 words |
| Finished Audio Length | 1 Take | 3 Takes | 5 Takes | Incl. 10% Buffer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 seconds | 0:30 | 1:30 | 2:30 | ~2:45 |
| 60 seconds | 1:00 | 3:00 | 5:00 | ~5:30 |
| 2 minutes | 2:00 | 6:00 | 10:00 | ~11:00 |
| 5 minutes | 5:00 | 15:00 | 25:00 | ~27:30 |
| 10 minutes | 10:00 | 30:00 | 50:00 | ~55:00 |
| 30 minutes | 30:00 | 1:30:00 | 2:30:00 | ~2:45:00 |
Always add at least 10% to your calculated duration to account for natural pauses, breaths, and emphasis. For scripts with lots of product names or technical terms, add 15–20%.
Medical, legal, and instructional content should be read at 100–120 WPM for clarity. High-energy commercials can push 170–180 WPM. Test-read your script aloud before finalizing timing estimates.
Finding the length of voiceover seems simple but it is really important. If you know how much time is needed to read text loudly you will save much time and avoid extra effort. That helps when you sync an advertisement of 30 seconds, explainer video or create a story for e-learning.
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The fastest way to estimate the duration is to divide the total number of words by 150. Like this you get the minutes that the voiceover will take at conversational pace. For longer drafts, like corporate films, documentaries or e-learning, it is better to count around 140 words each minute.
How Long Will a Voiceover Take
There are free tools that help with that. Some instantly convert words to time, which makes pacing easier. Others let you add text, change the speed and get exact predictions for any project.
Some calculators offer rates for slow, natural or fast talk. You simply put the number of words, choose the speed, and the program counts the final lnegth.
Another method is to choose similar text to that you will record and read it aloud. That gives a real sign about the time. If the draft has strict limits, you can use that measure to estimate the length of the script.
The recording always lasts longer than the final product. Usually it takes at least two hours of work to create one hour of voice acting, although some professionals need three hours for a final hour of story. Studio sessions commonly last three or four hours; after editing, you get around two and a half hours of usable audio.
That happens if the person is an expert and does not make mistakes. The whole process of recording and editing can take four to five times more time than the length of the voiceover itself. For instance, a 30-second video could take between two and two and a half hours.
The voiceover session itself usually lasts only two or three hours. Even so, the whole day of a voice actor can include several hours of auditions, self-promotion on social websites and various office tasks.
Long phrases in text can be difficult. A pause could happen in the middle of a phrase, once or a few times, depending on the length. Otherwise, the reader might too quickly pass through it without good pronunciation or emphasis.
The good thing is that in voiceover you can remove pauses with editing. It is common to do three attempts and choose the best, although occasionally you combine bits from every attempt. Doing fifteen or twenty attempts is already too a lot and maybe is overthinking it.
Usually, an audition text has around 15 to 25lines.
