Script word count to voiceover duration calculator
How long will this script run? This voiceover duration calculator answers both ways: enter a word count to get the length, or a target length to get the word budget. English scripts are estimated at 130, 150 or 170 words a minute (calm, standard, brisk) and Chinese scripts at 200, 250 or 300 characters. Tick the languages you will dub into and the total audio for every version is added up too.
- Three paces
- Words ↔ minutes
- 9 languages
- No AI involved
Updated Nov 5, 2026Fact-checked Nov 5, 2026
Sample A · Showdown at the engagement party
English · Script excerpt · 5 characters
Narrator
The champagne tower is barely up when Nora opens her eyes — she's back on the day they framed her.
VivianCold laugh
Sign the share transfer, little sister. Everyone's waiting on you.
NoraCalm
Sign it? Maybe look at the big screen first, Vivian.
Narrator
The lights dim. On screen, security footage — Vivian tipping powder into Nora's glass.
Voiceover duration calculator: words and minutes, both ways
Pick "script → duration" or "target length → words needed", then a pace. Every dub language you tick is counted at about the same length as the original.
Delivery pace (per minute)
Original-language audio
6:00
At 250 characters a minute
All 3 language versions
18:00
Total audio you get back
- English≈ 6:00
- Indonesian≈ 6:00
How we estimate: Chinese scripts at 200 / 250 / 300 characters a minute (calm / standard / fast), English scripts at 130 / 150 / 170 words a minute. Each dubbed version follows the original line by line, so we count it at about the same running time — cross-language research finds that different languages take roughly the same time to say the same content (Coupé et al., 2019, Science Advances). Your real length depends on the script and the voices; the generated file is the final word.
How to use the voiceover duration calculator
It calculates in your browser: no AI is called and nothing you type is stored.
- 01
Start from what you know
Have a script? Choose "script → duration". Only know the length a platform wants? Choose "target length → words needed". For an English script, switch the script language so the unit becomes words.
- 02
Enter the words or the minutes
Count only what will be spoken. Word and Google Docs word counts are close enough, but strip scene headings and stage directions first, because nobody reads them aloud.
Tip · You can also paste the lines into the TXT to SRT converter, which times each line at the same paces.
- 03
Pick a pace
Calm suits emotional scenes and long narration, standard suits ordinary drama dialogue, and brisk suits fast-paced dramas, recaps and promos. If unsure, start with standard and adjust after hearing a sample.
- 04
Tick the dubbed versions
Making Thai, Indonesian or Spanish versions too? Tick them under the dub languages. Each one is estimated at about the original's length, and the total is the audio you will need to review and edit.
Words per minute for voiceover: three paces and a lookup table
These are all the assumptions the calculator makes. They are planning figures, not an industry standard; the real length is whatever the recorded or generated audio turns out to be.
Where the three paces come from
The calculator uses three English paces: calm at 130 words a minute, standard at 150 and brisk at 170. For Chinese, where each character is one syllable, it uses 200, 250 and 300 characters a minute. "Per minute" here is measured over a whole stretch of audio, with breaths and the pauses between lines already averaged in, so it is slower than the instantaneous pace inside a single sentence.
| Target length | Calm 130 wpm | Standard 150 wpm | Brisk 170 wpm | Chinese standard 250/min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 seconds | 65 words | 75 words | 85 words | 125 chars |
| 1 minute | 130 words | 150 words | 170 words | 250 chars |
| 1 min 30 s | 195 words | 225 words | 255 words | 375 chars |
| 2 minutes | 260 words | 300 words | 340 words | 500 chars |
| 3 minutes | 390 words | 450 words | 510 words | 750 chars |
| 5 minutes | 650 words | 750 words | 850 words | 1,250 chars |
| 10 minutes | 1,300 words | 1,500 words | 1,700 words | 2,500 chars |
| 30 minutes | 3,900 words | 4,500 words | 5,100 words | 7,500 chars |
| 60 minutes | 7,800 words | 9,000 words | 10,200 words | 15,000 chars |
Which pace for dramas, stories and recaps
| Content | Suggested pace | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical short-drama dialogue | Standard → brisk | Lots of conflict and twists; short, sharp lines |
| Emotional scenes, crying, confessions | Calm | The pauses are part of the performance |
| Story narration, narrated comics | Standard | Narration has to carry the plot clearly |
| Recaps and promos | Brisk | High information density, pace keeps it moving |
| Audiobooks and long series | Calm → standard | Listeners tire quickly at a fast pace |
Estimating dubbed versions
The calculator counts each dubbed version at about the original's length. The basis is cross-language research: Coupé and colleagues (Science Advances, 2019) analysed read speech in 17 languages. Japanese and Spanish speakers produce roughly half as many syllables again per second as Vietnamese and Thai speakers, but the slower languages pack more information into each syllable, and every language lands near 39 bits per second (CNRS press release). Saying the same thing takes about the same time.
The dubbing workflow adds a second reason: each dubbed line follows the original line by line, so the number of lines, their emotions and their pauses stay the same. What does get noticeably longer is the subtitle. The same line in Indonesian or Spanish often has many more characters than in Chinese, and on a vertical screen it may need two rows. For the differences language by language, see multilingual dubbing.
Why the real length differs from the estimate
- Many short lines: an episode full of "You?" and "Go!" spends a bigger share of its time in the pauses between lines, so it runs longer than the word count suggests.
- Emotion: cold laughs, choked lines and whispers are usually slower than calm dialogue; shouting matches are faster.
- Numbers and acronyms: "2026" or "CEO" take more syllables to say than they take words to write.
- Voice choice: each voice has its own natural pace; narrator voices tend to be steadier and slower than young characters.
- Editing space: the final video also has silent shots, music and transitions, so video length is not voiceover length.
The most accurate way
An estimate is a budget for before you start. Dub a passage once in the workshop and check when the last cue of the exported SRT ends: that is the true length of those lines with that cast and those emotions.
Script too long? How to cut it to a target length
The platform wants 90 seconds an episode and the calculator says two minutes, so about a quarter has to go. Don't trim every line evenly; cut what the story doesn't need first.
| Problem | Before (words · standard pace) | After (words · standard pace) |
|---|---|---|
| A threat that rambles | I'm telling you, if you dare to walk out of that door today, then everything between us is over, and don't you ever think about coming back to me! (29 words · about 11.6 s) | Walk out that door and we're done. (7 words · about 2.8 s) |
| Narration that over-explains | Time flew by, and before anyone knew it, three whole years had passed, and Lin Wan had gone from an ordinary intern to the company's director. (26 words · about 10.4 s) | Three years on, intern Lin Wan was the director. (9 words · about 3.6 s) |
| The same question three times | What did you say? Say that again? Was what you just said true? (13 words · about 5.2 s) | Say that again. (3 words · about 1.2 s) |
- 1.Cut what the picture already shows: if we see her walk out, the narrator doesn't need to say "she walked out".
- 2.Merge repeated questions and keep the one with the most bite.
- 3.Keep narration to time jumps and key facts; adjectives and transitions go first.
- 4.Split long sentences: it may not save many words, but short lines take emotion better and subtitle more cleanly.
- 5.Never cut the twist or the cliffhanger at the end of an episode; they are what keeps viewers watching.
Run the trimmed script through the calculator again and leave about ten percent headroom for pauses and emotion. If a few lines still run long after dubbing, edit just those lines in the workshop and regenerate them; the rest stays as it is.
Five habits for estimating voiceover length
Count only spoken words
Scene headings, camera notes and bracketed directions are never read aloud. Remove them before counting or the estimate will run long.
Estimate scene by scene
A fight and a flashback in the same episode move at very different speeds. Estimating each scene at its own pace and adding them up beats one pace for the whole episode.
Leave room for pauses
For scripts full of short lines, add about 10% to the estimate; narration-heavy stories need less.
Check subtitles, not just time
A dub runs about as long as the original, but its subtitles get longer. Convert the translation with TXT to SRT and look at how much text each cue carries.
Calibrate with real output
After a few episodes with the same cast, divide each exported SRT's total length by the word count: that is your own drama's words per minute.
Frequently asked questions
Using this calculator's figures, about 150 words a minute suits ordinary drama dialogue; slow to around 130 for emotional scenes and go up to around 170 for fast dramas and recaps. There is no single standard, so let the listening decide.
There is no official "normal" rate for speech or voiceover. This voiceover duration calculator treats 150 English words a minute as standard; that figure already averages in the pauses between lines, which makes it useful for estimating whole passages.
Pick the episode length first and work backwards. For 90 seconds, that is about 225 words at the standard pace or about 255 at brisk, minus any time taken by shots with no dialogue. The calculator's "target length → words needed" mode does this for you.
About 450 words at the standard 150 words a minute, 390 at calm and 510 at brisk. Count words, not characters.
Duration ≈ word count ÷ words per minute, plus the pauses between lines. A 1,500-word script at 150 words a minute runs about 10 minutes. For more accuracy, dub a sample and calibrate your pace from its real length.
Usually close to the original, because each dubbed line follows the original line and languages convey information at similar rates. Expect the subtitles, not the audio, to grow; check them before you publish.
Estimated the length? Now hear it Count the words. Hear the cast.
Paste an episode: the AI casts every role, tags each line's emotion and voices the original and the dubbed versions with the same cast, each with an MP3 and an SRT.
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