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Audiobook Speed Calculator

See how long any audiobook or podcast takes at 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x or your own speed, how much time you save, how much is left and the day you'll finish. No length? Use the page or word count.

Quick lengths:
Or hours and minutes:
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Listening speed:
Pick a quick length or type the audiobook's length to see how long it takes at every speed, how much is left and when you'll finish.

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How Long Is an Audiobook at 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x and 2x?

Divide the audiobook's length by the speed. At 1.5x the narrator gets through 1.5 minutes of the book every minute, so the book takes two thirds of the time:

Listening time = Audiobook length ÷ Speed
Time saved = Audiobook length − Listening time

For example, an audiobook that runs 11 hours 32 minutes is 692 minutes long. At 1.25x it takes 692 ÷ 1.25 = 554 minutes (9h 14m), at 1.5x it takes 461 minutes (7h 41m), at 1.75x it takes 6h 35m and at 2x it takes 5h 46m. Converting the length to minutes first makes it easy to do in your head.

Audiobook Length at Every Speed

How long common audiobook lengths take at faster speeds, rounded to the nearest minute:

LengthAt 1.25xAt 1.5xAt 1.75xAt 2xAt 2.5xAt 3x
5 hours4h3h 20m2h 51m2h 30m2h1h 40m
8 hours6h 24m5h 20m4h 34m4h3h 12m2h 40m
10 hours8h6h 40m5h 43m5h4h3h 20m
12 hours9h 36m8h6h 51m6h4h 48m4h
15 hours12h10h8h 34m7h 30m6h5h
20 hours16h13h 20m11h 26m10h8h6h 40m

And a few well-known audiobooks, using the runtimes on their Audible listings:

AudiobookAt 1xAt 1.5xAt 2x
Atomic Habits5h 35m3h 43m2h 48m
Project Hail Mary16h 10m10h 47m8h 5m
The Way of Kings45h 29m30h 19m22h 45m
The Stand47h 47m31h 51m23h 54m

How Long Is an Audiobook for a 200, 300 or 400-Page Book?

Narrators read about 9,300 words per finished hour of audio, the figure ACX (Audible's narration marketplace) uses to estimate audiobook lengths. That's about 155 words a minute. A printed page holds roughly 250 to 300 words, so:

PagesWordsAudiobook at 1xAt 1.5x
200 pages50,000–60,0005h 23m – 6h 27m3h 35m – 4h 18m
250 pages62,500–75,0006h 43m – 8h 4m4h 29m – 5h 23m
300 pages75,000–90,0008h 4m – 9h 41m5h 23m – 6h 27m
350 pages87,500–105,0009h 25m – 11h 17m6h 16m – 7h 32m
400 pages100,000–120,00010h 45m – 12h 54m7h 10m – 8h 36m
500 pages125,000–150,00013h 26m – 16h 8m8h 58m – 10h 45m

If you know the word count, the estimate is tighter:

WordsAt 1xAt 1.5xAt 2x
50,0005h 23m3h 35m2h 41m
70,0007h 32m5h 1m3h 46m
80,0008h 36m5h 44m4h 18m
90,0009h 41m6h 27m4h 50m
100,00010h 45m7h 10m5h 23m
120,00012h 54m8h 36m6h 27m
150,00016h 8m10h 45m8h 4m

These are estimates. Some narrators read faster or slower, and dialogue-heavy books, poetry and books with lots of accents or pauses can run longer. Use the real length from the listing when you have it.

How to Work Out Time Left and % Done

% done = Place in the book ÷ Audiobook length × 100
Time left at 1x = Audiobook length − Place in the book
Time left at your speed = Time left at 1x ÷ Speed

Say you're 4 hours into an 11-hour audiobook. You've done 4 ÷ 11 = 36%, you have 7 hours left at normal speed, and at 1.5x those 7 hours take 4 hours 40 minutes. Listening 45 minutes a day at 1.5x, you'd finish in 7 days.

Your "place in the book" is where the player is, not how long you've spent listening. If you've listened for 2 hours at 1.5x, you're 3 hours into the book.

Apps show progress differently. Libby shows your percentage and the time left at the top of the player, and its time left stays at normal speed even when you listen faster. Audible shows a progress bar you can set to cover the whole book or just the chapter, plus the time left. If your app's time left changes when you change speed, tick the box under "Time left" in the calculator.

What Speed Do People Listen At?

There's no right speed. Every app starts at 1x, and most people stay there: Audible says about 7% of its listeners have tried 1.5x or faster, and that 1.2x and 1.5x are the most common speeds after 1x. Narrators record at a natural pace of about 155 words a minute, and each step up raises it:

SpeedWords a minuteAn hour of book takes
1x (normal)About 1551h
1.25xAbout 19448m
1.5xAbout 23340m
1.75xAbout 27134m
2xAbout 31030m
2.5xAbout 38824m
3xAbout 46520m

Narrators differ, so 1.25x on a slow, dramatic reading can feel like 1.5x on a brisk one. A common approach is to start at 1x and nudge the speed up a step at a time until it stops feeling natural, then drop back one step. Slow down for dense non-fiction or books with lots of characters.

How fast each app goes:

  • Audible: 0.5x to 3.5x
  • Libby: 0.6x to 3x
  • Kobo eReaders: 0.5x to 3x
  • Apple Books on a Mac: 0.75x to 2x

Watching videos or a course instead? The playback speed calculator does the same maths for any YouTube link, and the playlist length calculator adds up a whole playlist.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate audiobook time at a faster speed?

Divide the length by the speed. An audiobook that runs 11 hours 32 minutes is 692 minutes long, so at 1.5x it takes 692 ÷ 1.5 = 461 minutes, or 7 hours 41 minutes. At 2x it takes 5 hours 46 minutes. The calculator above shows every common speed at once.

How long is 6 hours at 1.5x speed?

4 hours. 6 ÷ 1.5 = 4, so you save 2 hours, a third of the time. At 1.25x it takes 4 hours 48 minutes, and at 2x it takes 3 hours.

How long would an audiobook be for a 300-page book?

About 8 to 10 hours. A 300-page book has roughly 75,000 to 90,000 words, and narrators read about 9,300 words per hour, so it runs about 8 hours 4 minutes to 9 hours 41 minutes at normal speed. A 400-page book runs about 10 hours 45 minutes to 12 hours 54 minutes.

How many hours is a 70,000-word audiobook?

About 7 and a half hours. 70,000 words ÷ 9,300 words per hour is 7 hours 32 minutes at normal speed, or about 5 hours at 1.5x. A 100,000-word book runs about 10 hours 45 minutes.

How many words is a 7-hour audiobook?

About 65,000 words. Narration runs about 9,300 words per hour, so 7 hours is roughly 65,100 words. A 22-hour audiobook is about 205,000 words, the length of a long fantasy novel.

How do I work out how much audiobook time I have left?

Take your place in the book away from its length, then divide by your speed. If you're 4 hours into an 11-hour book, you have 7 hours left at 1x, or 4 hours 40 minutes at 1.5x. Enter your place, percentage or time left in the calculator to see it at every speed, plus the day you'll finish.

How can I see what percentage of my audiobook I've finished?

Libby shows your percentage at the top of the player. Audible shows a progress bar instead, which you can set to cover the whole book rather than the chapter, plus the time left. In any app, divide your place in the book by its length: 4 hours into an 11-hour book is 36%. Type your place or the time left into the calculator and it works out the percentage for you.

Why does my app show a different time left?

Apps count it differently. Libby shows the time left at normal speed even when you listen at 2x, some apps adjust it to your speed, and many show the time left in the current chapter rather than the whole book. If your app's time left changes when you change speed, tick "My app shows it at" your speed in the calculator.

What's the fastest speed on Audible?

3.5x. Audible lets you pick any speed from 0.5x to 3.5x. Libby goes from 0.6x to 3x, Kobo eReaders from 0.5x to 3x, and Apple Books on a Mac from 0.75x to 2x.

Does listening faster use fewer of my Spotify audiobook hours?

No. Spotify counts audiobook listening time at normal speed, so a 5-hour book uses 5 hours of your monthly allowance even if you listen at 2x.

Does this work for podcasts and YouTube videos too?

Yes. The maths is the same for anything with a length, so you can enter a podcast episode's length here. For YouTube, the playback speed calculator takes a video link and fills in the exact length for you.

Is the audiobook speed calculator free?

Yes. It's free with no sign-up, and nothing you type leaves your browser.

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