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EasyPalmCards

Speaking speed test

Tap Start, read the passage aloud as if you were giving a speech, then tap Stop. You get your pace in words per minute and a word budget for your time limit.

Passage

Read this aloud 108 words

Have you ever wondered why the sky looks blue on a clear day? Sunlight looks white, but it is really a mix of every colour. When that light reaches our atmosphere, it bumps into tiny particles of gas. Blue light travels in shorter waves than red light, so it gets scattered in every direction far more easily. Wherever you look, some of that scattered blue light is heading towards your eyes. At sunset the light has to travel through much more air before it reaches you. Most of the blue is scattered away on the journey, and the reds and oranges are left to colour the evening sky.

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Press Start, then begin reading.

Getting an accurate result

  1. Read it out loud, at speech volume Reading under your breath is much faster than speaking to a room. Stand up if you will be standing on the day.
  2. Read it once first A cold read includes stumbles. Skim the passage, then time yourself.
  3. Try two or three passages Stories usually come out faster than explanations. Average the results, or test with your own speech.

What to do with your number

Use the word budget to check your draft. If your limit is three minutes and you read at 140 words per minute, a 420-word speech fits exactly, so aim a little under to leave room for pauses and laughter. The speech timer calculator does the same sum for any word count, and the word counter tells you where your draft is now.

If you are fast, the fix is rarely "talk slower" in general. Mark pauses on your cue cards instead: a [PAUSE] after each main point, and [SLOW] before a number or a name. Rehearse from the cards, not the script, because the breaks between cards slow you down naturally. How to write cue cards covers the delivery marks in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good speaking speed for a speech?

For most presentations, somewhere around 120 to 160 words per minute is easy to follow. Slower suits formal or emotional speeches and big rooms; faster can work for a casual, energetic talk, but audiences lose detail above about 180.

How is my words per minute worked out?

The tool counts the words in the passage and divides by the time between Start and Stop. If you read 120 words in 50 seconds, that is 120 ÷ (50 ÷ 60) = 144 words per minute.

Is reading a passage the same as giving my speech?

Not quite. Reading unfamiliar text tends to be a little slower than a speech you know, and speaking from short cue card prompts is often slower again, because you are choosing words as you go. Time your real speech too, using the Your speech option.

How many words should my speech be?

Multiply your words per minute by your time limit, then leave a little room for pauses and applause. The table under your result does the multiplication for 1, 3, 5 and 10 minutes.

Is my voice recorded?

No. The test only measures the time between your two taps. There is no microphone access and nothing leaves your browser.

Know your pace? Make the cards.

Paste your speech into the editor, check how many cards it fills, then rehearse from them with the speaking timer in Rehearse mode.

Open the editor