Ten minutes is a conference slot, a webinar segment or a training module. Around 1,300 words, and the first length where reading the whole thing word for word stops working.
A 10 min speech is about 1300 words at a natural speaking pace of 130 words per minute. The realistic range is 1100 words if you present slowly and deliberately, up to 1650 words if you speak quickly. Paste your script into the free calculator on this page to see its real length, measure your own speaking pace so the estimate matches how you actually talk, and load it straight into a free browser teleprompter to rehearse. No account is needed and nothing is uploaded.
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Presets are based on the situation, not where you are from. Measure yourself once and every page here uses your number.
Measure your speaking pace
Read this out loud at the pace you plan to speak. Tap start, read it, tap stop. Nothing is recorded, only the time is measured.
The trick to sounding natural on camera is not talking faster. It is knowing exactly where you are going, so the pauses land where you meant them to rather than where you ran out of road. Read this at the pace you would actually use, and the number at the end will be yours rather than an average.
| Pace | Words per minute | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Presenting | 110 | 1100 |
| Natural | 130 | 1300 |
| Conversational | 150 | 1500 |
| Fast | 165 | 1650 |
These are situation presets, not national averages. Published speaking rates vary more between individuals in one country than they do between countries, so measuring your own pace above is worth more than any figure in this table.
A fully scripted ten minutes sounds read, because it is. Script the opening minute and the close exactly, and reduce the eight minutes in between to cue lines of a few words each. You know your material, what breaks under pressure is getting from section to section.
At this length something always happens: a question, a slide that does not advance, a laugh that runs long. Write to about eight and a half minutes of words and the ten minute slot will hold.
Frequently asked questions
About 1,300 words at 130 words per minute. Between 1,100 presenting deliberately and 1,650 at a fast pace.
There is no fixed rule, but one slide per point rather than one per minute keeps you from racing. Put your slide changes into the script as cues so you never miss one.
No. Memorising this length is how people freeze. Know the opening and close, work from cue lines in the middle, and put them somewhere you can glance at without turning away from the room.