The target at every rate
| Speaking rate | Words that fit | What that pace is |
|---|---|---|
| 100 wpm | 500 words | — |
| 105 wpm | 525 words | — |
| 110 wpm | 550 words | — |
| 115 wpm | 575 words | — |
| 120 wpm | 600 words | — |
| 125 wpm | 625 words | — |
| 130 wpm | 650 words | — |
| 135 wpm | 675 words | — |
| 140 wpm | 700 words | Presentation preset |
| 145 wpm | 725 words | — |
| 150 wpm | 750 words | — |
| 155 wpm | 775 words | — |
| 160 wpm | 800 words | — |
| 165 wpm | 825 words | Speech preset |
| 170 wpm | 850 words | — |
| 175 wpm | 875 words | — |
| 180 wpm | 900 words | — |
| 185 wpm | 925 words | Podcast preset |
| 190 wpm | 950 words | — |
| 195 wpm | 975 words | — |
| 200 wpm | 1,000 words | — |
The spread across that table — 225 words between the deliberate and brisk presets — is roughly 1:22 of material. At this length that is an entire supporting example, added or removed purely by a variable most people never measure.
Five minutes is rarely five minutes
The number above answers "how many words fill five minutes of speaking". Your slot is not five minutes of speaking. Something like this happens instead:
| What happens | Costs |
|---|---|
| Someone introduces you | 20 sec |
| You reach the lectern and the slides catch up | 15 sec |
| One question at the end | 45 sec |
| Applause, in and out | 10 sec |
| Total overhead | 1:30 |
| Left for your script | 3:30 |
| Which is, at 165 wpm | 578 words, not 825 |
That is 247 words of difference — about 30% of the draft — created entirely by events outside your script. The habit worth building is to itemise the slot first and convert only the part that is genuinely yours.
Spending 825 words
Five minutes has room for a real structure, unlike three. The budget below is an editorial convention of this site, with no measurement behind it; shares sum to 100% and words are allocated by largest remainder so the parts add back to exactly 825.
| Section | Share | Words | Runs | Job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hook | 10% | 82 | 0:30 | One image, question or number that earns the next minute. |
| Why it matters | 15% | 124 | 0:45 | The stake. Who is affected and what changes. |
| Point one | 20% | 165 | 1:00 | The strongest claim, with its evidence attached. |
| Point two | 20% | 165 | 1:00 | The complication, the counter-case, or the mechanism. |
| Point three | 20% | 165 | 1:00 | The consequence, worked through with a real example. |
| Close | 15% | 124 | 0:45 | Restate the claim in one sentence and ask for something. |
| Total | 100% | 825 | 5:00 | — |
If the slot really only gives you 3:30, run the same shares against 578 words instead — or set the calculator above to 3 minutes 30 seconds and read the target off directly.
Five minutes versus three, and versus ten
The jump from three minutes to five is the jump from one idea to one idea with a proper middle: 330 extra words, which is enough for a second example and a genuine close. The jump from five to ten is larger again — 825 more words — and it is the point at which an audience starts expecting sections, and at which questions usually get carved out of the slot.
If you already have a draft in hand, the length pages work the other way round: 500 words, 1,000 words and 2,000 words each convert a finished script into a running time and show what has to come out.