# Text to speech time calculator: how long will your script take to read?

> Paste your script, pick the language and see how many minutes the voiceover will run. The rates were measured on our own voices, the speed slider matches the generator and the calculator uses no credits.

Page: https://ttslark.com/tools/text-to-speech-time

## What you can do here

- Turn words or characters into minutes for English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, Chinese and Japanese.
- Move the speed slider from 0.5 to 2 times and watch the estimate follow.
- See how many 60 second parts a script fills and whether it fits a three minute Short.

## Why it helps

**Plan the cut before you record.** At speed 1.0 one minute holds about 187 English words, 266 Chinese characters or 296 Japanese characters. Write to that number and the voiceover fits the first time.

**Rates measured, not guessed.** Every rate comes from timing the sample clips on our voice pages at speed 1.0, so the estimate matches the voices you will actually use.

**Chinese and Japanese counted properly.** Both languages are measured in characters with punctuation left out, since neither marks words with spaces.

**Know when to trim and when to speed up.** A script ten percent over fits at speed 1.1 with no cuts. Past that, cutting a sentence keeps the pauses natural.

**Free and private.** The calculator runs without an account and uses no credits.

## Start

- Calculator: https://ttslark.com/tools/text-to-speech-time
- Generator with the same speed slider: https://ttslark.com/