Ace 
By the Ace Coach team, built with the best speech coaches · Updated
Time at different paces
| Pace | Rate | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | 120 wpm | 4 min 10 s |
| Lecture | 145 wpm | 3 min 27 s |
| TED talk | 169 wpm | 2 min 58 s |
Paces come from measured averages: about 145 words per minute in university lectures and 169 in TED talks (Wingrove, 2017).
What fits in this length
A best man or maid of honor speech, a short award acceptance, or a lightning talk.
Three to four minutes is a good length for a wedding speech: long enough for one story, short enough to keep the room.
Check your own pace
Everyone's pace is different, and most people speed up when they're nervous. Time yourself reading one paragraph of your script out loud, or use how fast do I talk for a 60-second test. Then plug your number into the speech time calculator.
How to memorize a speech
Public speaking practice
How to stop talking too fast