How Many Words Is a 20 Minute Speech?
1 min read
Short answer
Words in 20 minutes, by pace
| Pace | Words a minute | Words in 20 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | 130 | 2,600 |
| Natural | 150 | 3,000 |
| Fast | 170 | 3,400 |
At the natural pace the script is 3,000 words: about6 pages single spaced or12 pages double spaced in 12pt Times New Roman.
Check your own numbers
3,000
Words needed at 150 wpm
About 12 double-spaced pages.
150 words per minute · average is 150
Common durations
150 wpm1 minute is roughly 3 words.
3,000 words, but write 2,700
At 150 words a minute, 20 minutes is 3,000 words. Write about 2,700. Over 20 minutes, the small things add up: pauses after key points, a slide that needs explaining, a laugh, a sip of water. Three hundred words of slack is about two minutes, which is roughly what those take.
If your slot is “20 minutes including questions”, plan a 15-minute talk of about 2,250 words instead.
Where 20 minutes comes up
Twenty minutes is the standard slot for conference presentations in many fields, and close to the 18-minute cap of the well-known ideas-conference format. It is also the length of many sermons, lectures in a series, and the main talk at a club or community event.
A structure that holds attention
Twenty minutes is long enough for attention to drift. Build in a change of pace every four or five minutes: a story, a question to the room, a demonstration or a new section with its own opening.
| Section | Words | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Opening: why this matters to this audience | 300 | 2 minutes |
| The problem, with a concrete example | 450 | 3 minutes |
| Idea one, with evidence | 600 | 4 minutes |
| Idea two, with evidence | 600 | 4 minutes |
| The strongest objection, answered | 400 | 2.5 minutes |
| What the audience should do or think next | 350 | 2.5 minutes |
That adds up to 2,700 words and 18 minutes, leaving two minutes of slack.
Signposting for listeners
A reader can flick back a page; a listener cannot. Tell the audience where you are: “There are two reasons this matters. The first is…” and “That brings me to the second reason.” It feels repetitive when writing the script and sounds natural when spoken.
Timing a long talk
Do one complete, timed run-through out loud. Over 20 minutes, a pace just 10 words a minute faster than you assumed finishes over a minute early, and 10 slower overruns by about as much. Measure your real pace from that run and set it in the speaking time calculator; from then on, its estimates for each section will match your delivery.