Audiobook length calculator
Turn your word count into finished audio hours, at the pace ACX says most narrators keep.
- Finished hours
- 8.6
- Listening at 1x
- 8 h 36 min
- Per chapter
- 17 min
- Narration pace
- 155 wpm
Reading the same words silently takes about 5 h 8 min at the average fiction rate.
Slower and Faster are our own 10% either side of the ACX average, not ACX figures. Real narration varies with the narrator, dialogue and pauses.
Rather have a pro handle this? Our studio can: audiobook production.
Short answer
Divide your word count by 9,300, the words per finished hour ACX says most narrators average. An 80,000 word novel runs about 8.6 hours, or 8 h 36 min. That is 155 words a minute. Slower narrators, lots of dialogue and long pauses make it longer.
How to use it
- Enter your book's word count. The manuscript word counter can count a .docx for you.
- Pick the narration pace: the ACX average, a slower or faster narrator, or your narrator's own words per minute.
- Choose a playback speed to see how long a listener at 1.5x or 2x spends.
- Add your chapter count to see the average chapter length against ACX's file limit.
- Copy the result, download it, or copy the share link.
How it works
ACX says most performers narrate about 9,300 words per finished hour. The calculator divides your word count by that pace. Slower and Faster move the pace 10% either way, our own example of how much a narrator's style changes the length.
Finished hours = words / 9,300
Words a minute = 9,300 / 60 = 155
Listening time = finished length / playback speed
Worked example: 80,000 words / 9,300 = 8.6 hours, which is 8 h 36 min. Split into 30 chapters, each runs about 17 min, well inside ACX's 120 minute file limit. A listener at 1.5x gets through it in 5 h 44 min.
Reference
Finished audiobook length by word count at the ACX average of 9,300 words per hour.
| Words | Finished hours | Length | At 1.5x |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20,000 | 2.2 | 2 h 9 min | 1 h 26 min |
| 40,000 | 4.3 | 4 h 18 min | 2 h 52 min |
| 60,000 | 6.5 | 6 h 27 min | 4 h 18 min |
| 80,000 | 8.6 | 8 h 36 min | 5 h 44 min |
| 100,000 | 10.8 | 10 h 45 min | 7 h 10 min |
| 120,000 | 12.9 | 12 h 54 min | 8 h 36 min |
| 150,000 | 16.1 | 16 h 8 min | 10 h 45 min |
Questions authors ask
How many words are in an hour of audiobook?
ACX, Audible's production platform, says most performers narrate about 9,300 words per finished hour. That is about 155 words a minute. It is an average: narrators and books vary.
How long is an audiobook of 80,000 words?
About 8 h 36 min at the ACX average. With a narrator 10% slower it is about 9 h 33 min, and 10% faster about 7 h 49 min. Those two are our own examples, not ACX figures.
What is a finished hour?
A finished hour is one hour of the final, edited audiobook a listener hears. Recording, editing and mastering one finished hour takes much longer in the studio. Narrators often quote their fee per finished hour.
How long does it take to listen at 1.5x or 2x?
Divide the finished length by the playback speed. At 1.5x, an 80,000 word audiobook takes about 5 h 44 min instead of 8 h 36 min.
How long can one chapter file be on ACX?
ACX asks for one chapter or section per file, each no longer than 120 minutes. At the ACX average that is about 18,600 words. Split longer chapters into sections.
Is listening faster than reading?
Not at normal speed. The average adult reads fiction silently at about 260 words a minute, against about 155 for narration, so 80,000 words take about 5 h 8 min to read and 8 h 36 min to hear at 1x.
Before and after this step
- Previous stepManuscript word counter
- Next stepReading time calculator
Related tools
Sources
Last verified against ACX's help pages and Brysbaert's 2019 reading rate meta-analysis. The slower and faster paces are our own estimates. Your real length depends on the narrator, so time a sample before you budget.
Narration length
- ACX Help: How long will my narrated audiobook be? help.acx.com
- ACX Help: ACX audio submission requirements help.acx.com