How many words is a 5 minute speech?

Teachers, event organisers and competitions usually set speech limits in minutes, but you write in words. Converting between the two is simple once you know roughly how fast you speak. This page uses three paces: slow (110 words per minute), average (130) and fast (160). The same numbers power our speech timer calculator.

The short answer

A 5 minute speech is about 650 words at an average pace of 130 words per minute. If you speak slowly, with plenty of pauses, plan for about 550 words. If you naturally speak fast, you might fit about 800.

Those are speaking words, not counting stage directions or notes to yourself. When in doubt, aim for the lower figure. A speech that finishes thirty seconds early is far better than one that is cut off by a timer or a restless audience.

Words for every speech length

Find your time limit in the left column, then read across for your pace. Most people giving a prepared speech fall in the average column.

So a 3 minute speech is about 390 words, a 10 minute speech about 1,300 words and a 20 minute talk about 2,600 words at an average pace. Longer talks usually include slides, questions or activities, so leave room for those.

How long is a 1,000 word speech?

Going the other way, here is roughly how long common word counts take at an average pace of 130 words per minute, rounded to the nearest half minute.

A 1,000 word speech takes about seven and a half minutes. If your essay or script is much longer than your limit, see the tips on cutting to time below.

What changes your pace

Your words per minute are not fixed. The same person can speak at very different speeds depending on the situation.

• The type of speech. A eulogy or a formal address is usually slow and steady. An enthusiastic pitch or a wedding toast full of stories tends to be faster.
• Pauses. Deliberate pauses after key points make a speech clearer, but they add up. Five two-second pauses is ten seconds you did not write.
• Laughter and applause. If your speech is funny, the audience's reaction eats into your time. Leave a buffer for a toast or best man speech.
• Reading versus speaking. Reading a script word for word is often faster than speaking from prompts, because you do not stop to find the next thought.
• Speaking in a second language. Many people speak more slowly in a language they are still learning. That is fine; plan for the slow column and focus on being clear.
• Nerves. Most people speed up when they are nervous. Rehearsing until the speech feels familiar is the best cure.

How many cue cards for a 5 minute speech?

It depends on what you put on each card. As a rough guide for a 5 minute speech:

• Prompt cards with keywords and short phrases: around 5 to 8 cards, about one main point per card.
• Full-text cards, where every word is written out: around 10 to 14 small cards in a readable font size, or fewer if you use large cards.

Prompts help you look up and talk to the audience; full text is better for eulogies, formal readings or speaking in a second language. Many speakers mix the two, with the opening and closing written out in full and prompts in between. Paste your speech into the editor and it splits it into note cards for you, or use the cue card calculator to estimate the count. The guide to writing cue cards explains what to put on each one.

Measure your own pace

The averages above are a starting point, but your own pace is what counts. It takes two minutes to find it:

1. Read a passage aloud for one minute Use the speaking speed test, or time yourself reading part of your own speech in the voice you will use on the day.
2. Count the words Paste what you read into the word counter. That number is your words per minute.
3. Multiply by your time limit If you read 120 words in a minute and have five minutes, aim for about 600 words, then trim a little for pauses.

Cutting a speech down to time

If your speech runs long, cut whole sections before you start trimming individual words. Removing one story or example saves far more time than tightening every sentence.

• Keep your strongest two or three points and drop the rest.
• Shorten the introduction. Many speeches spend a minute warming up before they begin.
• Replace lists with one vivid example.
• Remove repeated ideas. If you make the same point twice, keep the better version.
• Rehearse with a timer, then cut again. Aim to finish at about 90 percent of your limit.