Audiobook speed calculator

Enter the length shown in your audiobook app. See the real listening time at every playback speed, and what speed gets you to the end by a deadline.

Listening time at 1.5×

8 h

12 h of audio at 1.5× saves 4 h. At 45 minutes a day you finish in 11 days. To finish within 14 days at 45 minutes a day you need at least 1.15×.

Every speed

Time for what is left of the book. Words per minute assume a narrator at about 155 words per minute at normal speed.

Speed	Listening time	Compared with 1×	Days at 45 min	≈ Words/min
0.75×	16 h	adds 4 h	22	116
0.9×	13 h 20 min	adds 1 h 20 min	18	140
1×	12 h	—	16	155
1.1×	10 h 55 min	saves 1 h 05 min	15	171
1.2×	10 h	saves 2 h	14	186
1.25×	9 h 36 min	saves 2 h 24 min	13	194
1.3×	9 h 14 min	saves 2 h 46 min	13	202
1.5×	8 h	saves 4 h	11	233
1.75×	6 h 51 min	saves 5 h 09 min	10	271
2×	6 h	saves 6 h	8	310
2.5×	4 h 48 min	saves 7 h 12 min	7	388
3×	4 h	saves 8 h	6	465

How it is calculated

Playing a recording at speed s gets through it in the original length divided by s: listening time = length ÷ speed. Nothing is assumed about the book or the narrator. The time saved is the length minus that, and at speeds below 1× it becomes time added.

If you have already listened to part of the book, enter that part as book time, the way most apps show your position, not the time it took you. The calculator works on what is left: remaining = length − listened.

The speed you need to finish by a deadline is the remaining book time divided by the listening time you have: speed needed = remaining ÷ (minutes a day × days). It is rounded up to the next hundredth so that you finish on time rather than a few minutes after.

The words-per-minute column is an estimate. It multiplies the speed by 155 words per minute, the rate implied by ACX's production estimate of about 9,300 words per finished hour of narration. Your narrator may be faster or slower; the listening times do not depend on it.

A worked example

An audiobook is listed as 11 h 36 min, which is 696 minutes.

At 1.25×: 696 ÷ 1.25 = 557 minutes, or 9 h 17 min, saving 2 h 19 min.
At 1.5×: 696 ÷ 1.5 = 464 minutes, or 7 h 44 min, saving 3 h 52 min.
At 2×: 348 minutes, or 5 h 48 min, exactly half.
Listening 30 minutes a day on a commute at 1.25×: 557 ÷ 30 = 18.6, so 19 days.

Notice that the savings shrink as the speed rises. Going from 1× to 1.5× saves 3 h 52 min; going on from 1.5× to 2× saves only another 1 h 56 min. Most of the benefit arrives in the first steps up.

Choosing a speed

Speeding up is easier than it sounds, because the ear adjusts. A speed that seems rushed in the first chapter often feels normal by the third. A common approach is to raise the speed by 0.1× every few chapters until it starts to feel like work, then step back one notch.

Match the speed to the book. A fast-moving thriller with a measured narrator can take a lot of speed. Poetry, a narrator doing distinct character voices, dense argument, or a book in a language you are learning may be worth hearing at 1× or even slower. Most apps let you set the speed per book.

Where the numbers can be off

App rounding. Some apps show the remaining time already adjusted for your current speed and some do not. Check whether the figure changes when you change the speed; if it does, set the app to 1× before reading off the length.
Silence trimming. Several apps offer a setting that shortens pauses. It saves extra time on top of the speed, by an amount that depends on the recording, so actual listening time will be a little shorter than shown here.
Word estimates. Narration speed varies by narrator and genre, so the words-per-minute figures are a guide only.

Common questions

How long is a 10-hour audiobook at 1.5x speed?

6 hours 40 minutes. Playback speed divides the length: 10 hours is 600 minutes, and 600 ÷ 1.5 = 400 minutes. At 2x it is 5 hours, and at 1.25x it is 8 hours. You save a third of the time at 1.5x and half at 2x.

What is the best audiobook speed?

The fastest one at which you still follow and enjoy the book, which differs between listeners and between books. Many people settle somewhere between 1.2x and 1.5x for fiction. A slow narrator or a light novel can take more speed; a dense non-fiction book, a heavy accent or a full-cast production often needs less. Try raising the speed in small steps over a few chapters rather than jumping straight to 2x.

Do I understand less at higher speeds?

Up to a point, not much. Research on sped-up lecture videos has generally found little loss in immediate comprehension up to around 1.5x to 2x, with a clearer drop beyond that. Those studies used short educational recordings, not novels, and they tested recall rather than enjoyment. How much of the narrator's performance you want to keep is a separate question only you can answer.

How many words per minute is an audiobook?

Narration commonly runs at around 150 to 160 words per minute. ACX, Audible's production marketplace, estimates about 9,300 words per finished hour, which is 155 words per minute; this page uses that figure. At 1.5x you hear about 233 words per minute, close to typical silent reading speed.

Is listening to an audiobook faster than reading?

At normal speed, no: narration at about 155 words per minute is slower than the adult average for silent reading of about 238 to 260. At 1.5x the two are roughly equal, and above that listening is faster. The comparison is only about pace; the reading time calculator covers reading speeds in detail.