Free tool · 3 free, then your email
Talking speed coach
Read your script into the mic and see your words per minute, your pauses, and how both compare to the format you are making.
The browser will ask once. Granting it also lets the list name your inputs, which it cannot do beforehand.
No audio is recorded, saved, or sent anywhere. The tool reads how loud the microphone is 20 times a second and keeps the numbers, nothing else.
Almost nobody knows how fast they talk. The two guesses creators make are both wrong in the same direction: the ones who think they rush are usually fine, and the ones who think they are being clear are the ones losing people. Retention graphs will not tell you which you are, because a drop-off looks identical whether the pacing was too slow or the idea was weak.
This measures it instead of guessing. Paste the script, read it into your microphone, and you get your words per minute over the whole take, your pace with the pauses taken out, how many pauses there were, and the longest one. The word count comes from your script, so it is exact. Nothing is transcribed, because a speech-recognition error would land in the one number the whole result depends on.
The target band changes with the format, so the tool asks first. A YouTube explainer usually runs 150 to 180 words per minute, a vlog a little under that, a podcast slower again, and a talk to a room slower still. When your pace lands outside the band you picked, you get the clock time the same script would take inside it, which is a far more useful instruction than being told to slow down.
Frequently asked questions
- How does it count the words if it is not transcribing me?
- It does not need to. You paste the script, so the word count is exact before you open your mouth. The microphone only supplies the clock. Speech recognition would put errors into the one number the whole result rests on, which is why it is not used here.
- Is my voice recorded?
- No. No audio is saved, no file is created, and nothing is sent anywhere. The page reads how loud the microphone is twenty times a second and keeps only those numbers, which is enough to time you and spot pauses.
- Can I choose which microphone it uses?
- Yes. Pick it from the list above the record button, and recording opens that input and nothing else. The list can only name your inputs after the browser has granted this page the microphone once, which is why it asks first and fills in afterwards. If you have blocked it before, the browser will not ask again: open the site settings from the icon at the left of the address bar, set the microphone to Allow, then reload.
- What is a good speaking pace?
- It depends on what you are making, so the tool asks first. YouTube explainers usually sit between 150 and 180 wpm, vlogs 140 to 170, podcasts 130 to 160, audiobook narration 150 to 160, and a talk to a room 120 to 150. A room needs more space than a pair of headphones does.
- Why are there two pace numbers?
- The big one counts your pauses, because a viewer feels those as part of the pace. The second one takes them out and measures only the time you were actually talking. When those two numbers are far apart, the pacing problem is the gaps rather than the delivery, and the fix is different.
- What counts as a pause?
- A gap of 0.4 seconds or more with nothing above the speech threshold. That threshold is set from your own recording rather than a fixed number, so a quiet microphone is not read as silence and a noisy room is not read as talking.
- Is it really free?
- Three takes without an account. After that one email unlocks it permanently, with no card and no limit on how many reads you run.
This tool lives inside Chewbr
Chewbr does pacing checks like this at the produce step, plus the other 46 jobs between filmed and published.
The full app is the finishing system for YouTubers: every video gets a 47-step checklist from Plan to Promote, with tools like this one built into the step where you need them. It has not launched yet, so join the waitlist and you will be first through the door.