Three minutes is the sweet spot for a maid of honour speech, a groom speech or a pitch with a bit of room in it. About 390 words.
A 3 min speech is about 390 words at a natural speaking pace of 130 words per minute. The realistic range is 330 words if you present slowly and deliberately, up to 495 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 | 330 |
| Natural | 130 | 390 |
| Conversational | 150 | 450 |
| Fast | 165 | 495 |
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.
Three minutes holds a single story with a setup, a turn and a landing. Two stories at this length means neither gets the time it needs.
Nerves speed most people up, so a script that times at exactly three minutes in the kitchen often comes in at two and a half on the day, then overruns anyway because of the laughs you did not plan for.
Frequently asked questions
About 390 words at 130 words per minute. Between 330 presenting deliberately and 495 at a fast pace.
It is a good length for a maid of honour or groom speech. The best man traditionally runs a little longer, three to five minutes, and the father of the bride longer still.
Roughly one and a half pages double spaced in 12pt, though the only reliable measure is reading it out loud with a timer.