Paste your script, pick the language, and the calculator turns words into minutes using the speaking rate we measured on our own voices. Move the speed slider and the estimate follows, along with the number of 60-second parts and whether the whole thing fits a three-minute Short.
187words per minute, English at speed 1.0
8languages with a measured rate
0credits used by the calculator
Estimate the length of your script
The default is the median rate of our sample clips for this language at speed 1.0. Voices differ by roughly 10 percent either way.
Paste a script or enter a count to see the estimate.
Estimated length
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60-second parts
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Fits a 3-minute Short
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Fits in one 60-second part
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Characters per minute at this setting: 991
Carries the script to the generator, where the same speed slider is waiting.
How the estimate works
How the estimate works
Three inputs, one multiplication, and a rate that was measured rather than assumed.
Words or characters, counted the way the engine reads them
English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Hindi are counted in words split on spaces. Chinese and Japanese have no spaces, so they are counted in characters with punctuation left out.
Why punctuation is excluded
Commas and full stops are read as pauses, not as syllables, so they add a little time without adding a countable unit. The pause time is already inside the measured rate, because the sample clips contained ordinary punctuation.
A rate measured on our own voices
Every rate on this page comes from timing the sample clips you can play on the voice pages: three sentences per voice, at speed 1.0, across all published voices in each language. The English median is 187 words per minute.
How much voices differ
Across the English clips the range runs from 121 words per minute for Delaney, our slowest read, to about 210 for Brooke and Dean. Most voices sit within 10 percent of the median, which is why the slider lets you nudge the rate rather than pick a voice.
Speed applied last
The generator's speed slider changes the rate in proportion, so 1.5 reads half again as fast and 0.5 takes twice as long. The calculator uses the same slider range, 0.5 to 2.0, and the same arithmetic.
What the estimate does not include
Pause tags you add by hand, and any silence you insert between chapters, are not in the estimate. Neither is the short lead-in and tail the encoder adds to a file, which is well under a second.
Speaking rates
Speaking rates by language and use case
Median rates from our sample clips at speed 1.0. Use them to size a script before you paste it, or to check the calculator's default for your language.
Language
Median rate at speed 1.0
What one minute holds
English
187 words per minute
About 990 characters, or 185 to 190 words
Spanish
181 words per minute
About 1,000 characters
French
185 words per minute
About 1,150 characters
Portuguese
185 words per minute
About 990 characters
Italian
170 words per minute
About 1,040 characters
Hindi
148 words per minute
About 700 characters
Japanese
296 characters per minute
Roughly five characters a second
Chinese
266 characters per minute
Roughly four and a half characters a second
Speed settings by use case
Hooks and short promos
If you push a hook to 1.2, a 60-second part holds about 225 English words instead of 187, and every pause shortens by the same fifth.
Narration and audiobooks
Leave the slider at 1.0. A 3,000-word chapter runs about 16 minutes in English; the narrator tool renders it as one file at one pace.
Language practice
Drop to 0.75 or 0.5 for shadowing. Pitch stays where it is, and the subtitles stretch with the audio so they still line up.
Rates are medians across published voices in each language, measured on the three sample sentences every voice page plays. Individual voices vary; the English range runs from 121 to about 210 words per minute.
Fitting a script into 60 seconds
Fitting a script into 60 seconds
STEP 01
Size the script first
At speed 1.0, 60 seconds holds about 187 English words, 266 Chinese characters, or 296 Japanese characters. Write to that number, or paste what you have and read the parts count.
STEP 02
Cut where the pauses are
The TikTok tool cuts the audio into parts of up to 60 seconds and gives each part its own subtitle file, so a script a little over the line becomes two parts rather than a cut-off ending.
STEP 03
Trim or speed up, not both
A script 10 percent over the line fits at speed 1.1 with no cuts. Past that, cutting a sentence keeps the pauses at their natural length, while a higher speed shortens every pause along with every word.
FAQ
Questions about text to speech length
How many words is a one-minute voiceover?
At speed 1.0 on our English voices, about 187 words, which is close to 1,000 characters including spaces. Slower voices such as Delaney cover around 120 words in the same minute; faster ones reach about 210.
Does speed change the estimate?
Yes, in direct proportion. Speed 1.5 cuts the length by a third; speed 0.5 doubles it. The calculator applies the same 0.5 to 2.0 range as the generator's slider.
Why are Chinese and Japanese measured in characters?
Neither language marks words with spaces, so a word count is not well defined. Characters are, and the measured rates are 266 per minute for Chinese and 296 for Japanese, with punctuation excluded.
Is the estimate the same as the actual TTS output?
It is close, not exact. The rate is a median across voices, so a specific voice can run about 10 percent faster or slower, and pause tags you add are not counted. Generate the script to get the real duration.
How many words fit in a 60-second TikTok?
About 187 English words at speed 1.0, or about 225 at speed 1.2. The TikTok tool renders straight into parts of up to 60 seconds, each with its own captions.
Turn the estimate into audio
The generator uses the same speed slider and shows the exact length when the file is ready. Free voices, subtitles included, no sign-up to listen.
