Teleprompter / Free tools / Words in a 10-minute script
Words in a 10-minute script
About 1,200 to 1,800 words. A keynote at 120 words a minute is about 1,200 words, a YouTube explainer at 145 about 1,450, and a brisk voiceover at 165 about 1,650. Most ten-minute talks to a room land at 1,200 to 1,400.
On this page
Words by pace
| Kind of read | Sample pace (words a minute) | Words in 10 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Keynote | 120 | 1,200 |
| Self-tape | 130 | 1,300 |
| Piece to camera | 140 | 1,400 |
| Voiceover | 150 | 1,500 |
| Commercial read | 165 | 1,650 |
| Fast read | 180 | 1,800 |
These are sample paces: our own starting points for each kind of read, and no study measured them as averages. Your pace is your own, and the reading pace test gives it to you in a minute. Then the budget is your pace × 10.
What usually runs ten minutes
| Job | Words to aim for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A keynote section or a TED-style talk | 1,200 to 1,350 | Pauses, applause and emphasis take real time |
| A YouTube explainer | 1,400 to 1,500 | Conversational, edited tight |
| A sermon or a reading | 1,150 to 1,300 | Slow and deliberate |
| A recorded training | 1,350 to 1,450 | Steady, with time to show things |
| A narrated documentary segment | 1,400 to 1,600 | Written around the picture |
How ten minutes divides
| Part | Time | Words at 130 a minute |
|---|---|---|
| Opening and promise | 0 to 1 min | About 130 |
| Four sections | 1 to 9 min | About 1,040, about 260 each |
| Close | 9 to 10 min | About 130 |
At ten minutes the audience needs to know where they are. Say the shape at the start and mark each section.
Check yours
Paste it into the script timer. For a talk to a room, take the timer's figure and add a minute for every five minutes you expect laughter, questions or demos.
Reading ten minutes
- Break it into a run order. In Cutvey Teleprompter a rundown holds several scripts in order, and can move to the next one on its own when a script ends.
- Timed mode and DRIFT. Give it the ten minutes, and the DRIFT clock tells you early, late or ON TIME, within five seconds.
- Have a remote. A clicker, a pedal or the Watch saves reaching for the screen over ten minutes.
- Water and a pause. Put a deliberate pause at the halfway point. You will need it, and the audience will too.
Other lengths
30 seconds · 1 minute · 2 minutes · 3 minutes · 5 minutes
Speaking rate, explained · All free tools
Questions people ask
How long is a 1,500-word speech?
About 10 minutes at 150 words a minute, 10 minutes 43 at 140 and 12 and a half minutes at 120.
How many words is a 10-minute YouTube video?
About 1,400 to 1,500 at an explainer's 140 to 150 words a minute.
How many pages is a 10-minute speech?
Pages vary with the font and spacing; words do not. Count words instead: about 1,200 to 1,400 for a talk to a room.