Voice-over duration calculator: how long does your script run?

How it computes

In one sentence: duration is the word count divided by a pace in words per minute of finished video, measured on real training videos.

Words are counted as runs of characters containing at least one letter or digit: “AI’s” is one word, so is “2026”. The count is then divided by the chosen pace.

The pace is not that of a voice alone but of a finished video: it includes the pauses between sentences, the breathing room between scenes and the closing hold. That is what tells you how many minutes the video will last.

Where the paces come from

We measured the 8 training videos published on this site, generated with EducPilot: the words in their captions divided by their length.

Hence the calculator’s three paces: 117 words per minute (relaxed), 128 (the mean of all eight) and 134 (brisk). The relaxed and brisk “Backups” videos read exactly the same 131-word text: only the pace setting differs, and it only changes the pauses, since the voice is never sped up.

A human voice reading without pauses goes faster; a software demo that leaves time to look at the screen goes much slower (our two demo videos run at about 83 words per minute). For another use, pick “Other pace”.

How to use the result

• Aim for one to three minutes per video, one objective each: at 128 words per minute, about 130 to 380 words.
• Beyond that, split: the calculator tells you how many three-minute videos your text would make.
• For an existing script, check its length before uploading it: it is also the length counted against your EducPilot minutes at generation.
• For a long document, do not try to read it all: the video gets the essentials across and points to the document. Our guide How to write a training video script explains how to sort.

Sources

• Measurements made on 5 October 2026 from the captions (WebVTT files) and lengths of the videos published on educpilot.org; the videos and their full transcripts are on the site.