How Many Words Is a 60-Second Video? Script Length for Every Duration

A 60-second video holds about 150 spoken words at a conversational pace, and anything from roughly 130 to 160 words fits comfortably depending on the voice. Slow, deliberate narration at about 120 words per minute fits around 120 words in a minute; fast, energetic delivery at about 180 words per minute fits around 180. The quick rule is 2.5 words per second at 150 words per minute, so a 30-second script is about 75 words and a 90-second script about 225. Paste your draft into the free Video Length Calculator to check it before you record.

This guide is for anyone writing narration for Shorts, Reels, TikToks, ads or YouTube videos, whether you write the script yourself, prompt an AI assistant for it or let a video tool draft it. It covers the speaking-rate research behind the 150 figure, a word-count table for every common duration, the reverse table (how long a given script runs), how pauses, hooks and captions change the math, platform length limits, a step-by-step timing method and the mistakes that make videos run long. Figures are current as of October 2026.

Related guides: how to write a YouTube script, 10 TikTok script templates, 50 ChatGPT prompts for video scripts and the ideal video length for every platform.

How Many Words per Minute Do People Speak?

Most English narration lands between about 140 and 180 words per minute, and 150 is the figure most script writers plan around. Words per minute (wpm) is the number of spoken words divided by the minutes it takes to say them, pauses included. The comfortable rate shifts with the job: an audiobook narrator, a radio newsreader and a storyteller on TikTok all sound natural at different speeds.

The published benchmarks line up well. ACX, Audible's audiobook production platform, tells authors that most performers narrate about 9,300 words per finished hour (ACX), which works out to 155 words per minute. A 2019 meta-analysis of reading-rate studies by Marc Brysbaert in the Journal of Memory and Language put the average oral reading rate at 183 words per minute across 77 studies, against 238 words per minute for silent reading of non-fiction (Brysbaert, 2019).

Listener research adds a ceiling. In a Media Psychology study by Emma Rodero of Pompeu Fabra University, summarized by Journalist's Resource, students rated radio news at 150 words per minute as slow, 170 to 190 as normal and 210 as fast. Items read at 170 to 190 were recalled best, and with dense copy at 230 words per minute, listeners could no longer keep up with the incoming information. Radio news is dense copy read by trained voices, so treat 170 to 190 as the top of the comfortable band rather than a target for a casual Short.

The gap between silent reading and speaking is why scripts run long. Reading the same text aloud takes about 30 percent longer than reading it in your head (183 versus 238 words per minute in Brysbaert's figures), and a relaxed voiceover at 150 takes longer still. A draft that feels tight on the page often overruns once a voice reads it, so always time the spoken version.

Script Length for Every Duration: 15 Seconds to 10 Minutes

To get a word count from a duration, multiply the seconds by 2.5 at 150 words per minute, by 2 at 120 and by 3 at 180. The table below does that math for the lengths creators actually make, from a 15-second ad to a 10-minute YouTube video, with the conversational column as the planning figure.

Two things stand out. First, the gap between slow and fast delivery grows with length: at 60 seconds it is 60 words, but at 10 minutes it is 600 words, an entire extra section of script. Second, the conversational column is a planning number, not a promise. Pauses, music-only intros and on-screen text the voice doesn't read all eat into it, which the sections below cover.

For a 60-second Short specifically, we suggest drafting at 140 to 150 words. That leaves a few seconds of slack for a beat after the hook and a clean ending, and it keeps the voice at a pace viewers can follow while they read the captions. If you want a structure to pour those words into, the free Video Script Generator builds an outline from your purpose, tone and length.

How Long Is a 150-Word Script?

A 150-word script runs about 60 seconds at a conversational 150 words per minute, about 50 seconds read fast and about 75 seconds read slowly. To go from words to time, divide the word count by the words-per-minute rate, then multiply by 60 to get seconds.

This is the table to use when an assistant hands you a script and you need to know whether it fits. A prompt that asks for 150 words is a request, not a guarantee, so count the draft yourself with the Word & Character Counter before you record or generate anything. It takes ten seconds and saves a re-render.

How Do Pauses and Pacing Change the Word Count?

Pauses come out of your word budget, so a script with deliberate beats needs fewer words for the same length. A 60-second video with five one-second pauses has 55 seconds of speech, which is about 138 words at 150 words per minute rather than 150.

Pauses are not wasted time. A half-second beat after a hook or before a reveal gives the viewer a moment to register the point, and good narrators vary their pace on purpose: quicker through the setup, slower on the number or the punchline. The practical rule is to count every intentional pause, music-only intro and sound-effect moment as time the voice isn't speaking, then size the script to the seconds that remain.

Punctuation changes delivery too. Human narrators and text-to-speech voices both pause at full stops, commas and paragraph breaks, so a script of short sentences runs slightly longer than the same words in long ones. That is usually a good trade, because short sentences are easier to follow by ear. Numbers, symbols and abbreviations push the other way: “$1.5M” is one token to a word counter but five spoken words (“one point five million dollars”), and “2026” is read aloud as “twenty twenty-six”. Write numbers the way they are spoken before you count.

Voices differ as well. Two narrators reading the same 150 words can finish several seconds apart, and AI voices each have their own natural speed. If an AI voice will narrate, preview it and time one paragraph; that single measurement beats any table, including ours. Our AI voiceover guide covers how to pick a voice that suits the content.

How Many Words Should a Hook Be?

A spoken hook should usually be 5 to 15 words, which takes about 2 to 6 seconds at 150 words per minute. That is long enough to promise something specific and short enough to finish before a thumb moves on.

The hook has the hardest job in the script and the smallest budget. In a 60-second Short, a 12-word hook uses about 5 seconds and 8 percent of a 150-word script. Compare “In this video I'm going to talk about some reasons your views might be going down” (16 words, no promise) with “Here's why your Shorts stop getting views after day two” (10 words, a specific question the viewer now wants answered). Write the hook last, once you know the payoff, and cut every word that doesn't point at it.

For dozens of tested openings, see video hooks that stop the scroll, or draft options with the free YouTube Hooks Generator. The same budgeting applies to the call to action at the end: a spoken CTA of 6 to 10 words, about 3 to 4 seconds, is enough. Long sign-offs give viewers a reason to swipe before the video loops, and they are the first words to cut when a script runs over.

Do Captions Change How Many Words You Can Fit?

Captions don't change the word count, but they set a practical ceiling on pace, because viewers read along. The BBC's subtitle guidelines recommend a subtitle speed of 160 to 180 words per minute, or 0.33 to 0.375 seconds per word (BBC). Narration at 150 words per minute gives each word 0.4 seconds, a little more reading time than that guideline asks for.

Short-form captions differ from broadcast subtitles in one important way: they are burned in and usually shown one to three words at a time, synced to the voice. That style reads comfortably at a conversational pace. At 180 words per minute each word gets a third of a second, the edge of the BBC's range, and a script dense with names or numbers starts to blur on a small screen. If the content is dense, slow the voice and cut words rather than squeeze more in.

Captions also carry the video for anyone watching muted, so the words on screen should match the words spoken. Rewriting the caption text to be shorter than the narration saves nothing and confuses readers. Our guide to improving retention on faceless videos covers caption styling alongside the other retention levers.

How Long Can Shorts, Reels and TikToks Be?

YouTube Shorts can run up to 3 minutes, Instagram recommends reels of 3 minutes or less to people who don't follow you, and TikTok accepts longer uploads, so platform caps rarely limit a script; attention does. In words, 3 minutes is about 450 at a conversational pace.

YouTube's help center says vertical or square videos up to three minutes long are classified as Shorts for uploads from October 15, 2024 (YouTube Help). Instagram's creator FAQ says it recommends videos to unconnected audiences that are 3 minutes or less (Instagram for Creators), so a longer reel gives up reach with new viewers. TikTok has raised its limit several times and confirmed a test of 60-minute uploads with a limited group in May 2024 (TechCrunch); we couldn't find one current cap stated on its help pages as of October 2026, so check the upload screen in the app.

A maximum is not a target. Pick the shortest length that delivers the payoff, then size the script to it. The ideal video length guide breaks down the sweet spots by platform, and YouTube Shorts length and size requirements covers the rest of the Shorts spec.

How to Time a Script Before You Record

The reliable method is count, calculate, then read aloud once with a timer, because each step catches a different error.

Step 1: Write the draft for the ear. Use short sentences, one idea per sentence, and numbers written the way they are said. Our YouTube script guide and TikTok script templates give you structures to start from.

Step 2: Count only the spoken words. Paste the narration, not the caption, title or on-screen text, into the Word & Character Counter.

Step 3: Convert words to time. Open the Video Length Calculator, paste the script or type the count, and pick a pace. Its presets are Slow (110 wpm), Normal (140 wpm) and Fast (170 wpm), and you can set a custom rate, so enter 150 to match the planning figure in this guide. It also shows which platforms the result suits.

Step 4: Read it aloud once with a stopwatch, at the pace you intend to use. If a human will narrate, this is your real number. If an AI voice will narrate, preview one paragraph in that voice and time it instead.

Step 5: Cut to fit, starting in the middle. Keep the hook and the payoff; trim the setup and the second example first. Removing 10 percent of the words rarely costs anything a viewer would miss, and it usually tightens the script.

Step 6: Re-time after every edit. Rewrites change the count, and a 20-word addition is 8 more seconds at 150 words per minute.

If you want a starting draft rather than a blank page, the free YouTube Script Writer and TikTok Script Writer produce scripts you can then count and trim with the steps above.

Common Mistakes That Make Videos Run Long (or Short)

Most timing problems come from counting the wrong words or trusting the silent read. These are the ones we see most often when reviewing scripts.

• Timing the silent read. You read silently far faster than you speak, so a script that feels like 45 seconds in your head (about 180 words at 238 wpm) runs more than 70 seconds at a 150 wpm voiceover.
• Counting the caption, title or on-screen text as narration, or forgetting to count the hook and the call to action.
• Writing numbers as digits and counting each one as a single word.
• Speeding up the voice to cram more in. Past roughly 190 words per minute, Rodero's listeners recalled less; cutting words works better than talking faster.
• Treating the platform maximum as the goal instead of the shortest length that delivers the payoff.
• Ignoring music-only intros, sound effects and deliberate pauses, which take time without adding words.
• Asking an assistant for “a 60-second script” instead of a word count, then not checking what came back.
• Reusing a script in another language without re-timing it; translations rarely keep the same length.

When the 150-Words-a-Minute Rule Doesn't Apply

The 150 figure is a planning default for English narration over visuals, and a few formats break it. Sleep, meditation and relaxation videos are read deliberately slowly, often near the bottom of the slow column or below it, with long pauses. Hype edits, sports recaps and some comedy styles run fast on purpose. Tutorials with screen recordings need gaps where the narration waits for the on-screen action, so their word count can be far below the table for the same length.

Language matters too. These rates are for English; other languages pack words and syllables differently, so a translated script needs its own timing pass. And none of this applies to unscripted talking-head footage, where you record first and trim later. In that case the length is set in the edit by removing silences and filler words, not by a word budget.

Data on short-form specifically is thin. The research above comes from audiobooks, reading studies and radio news, not from Shorts retention graphs, so treat the table as a starting point and let your own analytics adjust it. If your audience watches to the end at 160 words per minute, that is your number.

How Vidpal Studio Sizes Scripts (and Why It Targets 150 Words per Minute)

Vidpal Studio, our faceless video creator, calibrates scripts to about 150 words per minute, or 2.5 words per second. When you pick a duration, Studio shows the estimate under the Generate button (for example, ~60s and ~150 words), and the script is written to that length.

Short durations are 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 seconds, which works out to roughly 75, 113, 150, 188 and 225 words. Long Video, on paid plans, runs 1 to 10 minutes, or about 150 to 1,500 words. You can start from a Topic/Prompt, paste a Full Script or start From URL. In Full Script mode, Studio narrates your words as written, so the finished length follows your word count rather than the duration you picked; run the script through the Video Length Calculator first.

Why 150 rather than 170? It sits in the middle of the published ranges, close to ACX's 9,300 words per hour (155 per minute). It gives burned-in captions 0.4 seconds per word, slightly more than the BBC's subtitle guideline asks for, which matters when every Short carries word-by-word captions from one of Studio's 75 caption presets. And the math is predictable, so a week of batched videos comes out at the lengths you planned.

Narration uses system voices grouped by language, with previews, so you can hear a voice's pace before you generate. Studio narration and its captions are English; for other languages, the editor's Translate panel adds captions in 30 languages and voice dubbing in 8, without lip-sync. A Short costs 1 credit and a long video 5; our guide to AI video credits explains the rest, and Vidpal pricing lists the plans. Where Studio is not the right tool: if you film yourself talking, you don't need a word budget, and if you want an on-camera AI presenter, Vidpal is not an avatar tool.

Start free on Vidpal to see how Vidpal Studio sizes a script for each duration. The Free plan's 4 one-time credits let you generate and preview; exporting Studio videos needs a paid plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many words is a 30-second video? About 75 words at a conversational 150 words per minute. A slow, deliberate read fits about 60 words and a fast, energetic one about 90. For a 30-second ad or Short, draft around 70 words so the hook and the call to action fit without rushing the voice.

How many words is a 90-second video? About 225 words at 150 words per minute, with a realistic range of 180 words read slowly to 270 read fast. Ninety seconds is long enough for a short story or a mini-tutorial, so plan two or three clear beats rather than one long list.

How long is a 150-word script? About one minute at a conversational 150 words per minute, about 50 seconds read fast at 180 and about 75 seconds read slowly at 120. Pauses, music-only intros and sound effects add time on top of the spoken words, so time one read-through.

How many words is a 3-minute video? Roughly 450 words at a conversational pace, or 360 to 540 depending on speed. Three minutes is also the maximum length for a YouTube Short, so a 450-word script is about the most narration a single Short can carry.

How many words is a 10-minute video? About 1,500 words at 150 words per minute, and 1,200 to 1,800 across slow and fast delivery. Long-form scripts drift as you edit, so time each section separately and leave room for moments where visuals carry the story without narration.

What is a good words-per-minute rate for a voiceover? Between about 140 and 170 words per minute suits most narration. ACX's audiobook guidance works out to about 155, and Emma Rodero's radio research found news recalled best at 170 to 190. For captioned Shorts, 150 is a safe default that keeps captions readable.

Should I ask ChatGPT for a 60-second script or a 150-word script? Ask for a word count, because seconds depend on the voice while words are something you can check. Request 140 to 150 words for a 60-second Short, then verify the count and time one read-through before you record or generate the video.