Video script timer

How this script timer works

Word count divided by words per minute, times 60. That is the whole calculation. At a conversational 140 words per minute, 140 words runs 60 seconds. Push the pace to 170 and the same 140 words runs 49 seconds. Slow to 110 and it runs 76 seconds, which is a 60 second script that no longer fits its slot.

Words are counted the way a person would count them: split on spaces, standalone punctuation ignored. The pace you pick matters far more than the count, so pick the one that sounds like you rather than the one that makes the script fit.

Words to minutes and seconds: reference table

Reading time for common script lengths at three talking paces, for when you are still writing in a document and want a rough runtime before you paste anything in.

How many words is a 60 second video?

About 140 words at a conversational pace. Here is the same maths run the other way, from seconds to a word budget, for the four lengths short form actually uses.

How long should a TikTok, Reel or Short actually be?

Shorter than the limit, every time. The upload caps are 10 minutes on TikTok, 3 minutes on Instagram Reels and 3 minutes on YouTube Shorts, and not one of those is a target. What you are really writing to is a word budget, and the budget is smaller than the cap makes it look.

Reels is the tightest of the three in practice, which is why the same script often needs a shorter version for Instagram than for TikTok. Shorts behaves more like TikTok, with one difference worth knowing: the title sits on screen alongside your video, so the first line of your script does not have to do all the work on its own.

One rule that is not creative at all: TikTok's Creator Rewards programme only pays on original videos longer than a minute. If the payout matters to you, the runtime stops being purely a writing decision.

The other thing runtime decides is your on-screen text. A word budget is also a reading budget, so check the caption area before you write on-screen text and you will not end up with a line that is either too long to read or sitting behind the app's own buttons.

Why 60 second scripts usually run long

Almost every first draft we time comes in over. The same four reasons show up every week.

• You read faster than you perform. Reading is silent and even. Delivery has emphasis, breath and pauses, and those cost seconds that never appear in the document.
• The hook gets said twice. Most drafts state the promise, then restate it in different words. That second version is 20 to 25 words at conversational pace, a fifth of a 60 second video gone. Cut the weaker one, and if the first line is not doing its job yet, replace it before you start counting words at all.
• The script narrates what the shot already shows. If the viewer can see the room, the product or the screen, the words do not need to describe it.
• Lists run to five items. Three lands harder and buys back 20 seconds.

Write to about 85 percent of your budget. For a 60 second video at 140 words per minute, that means aiming at 120 words rather than 140. The gap is what makes it sound like a person talking instead of someone reading.

Cutting a 180 word script down to 60 seconds

A 180 word script runs 1:17 at conversational pace. The timer tells you to lose 40 words to reach 140, and we would take out 50 to land near 130, because the timer cannot hear your pauses. That sounds brutal until you look at where those words are, and they are almost never in the middle.

Here is a first draft opening, 41 words. "Hi everyone, I wanted to talk today about something that comes up a lot with my clients, which is the question of whether you should be putting money into an ISA or a pension first. It is a really common question."

The same opening in 14 words. "Most people pick the wrong one of these two, and it costs them thousands."

That is 27 words back before a single idea has changed. Delete the sentence that restates the promise and you are at about 130, which is a 60 second video with room to breathe. Then read it out loud once against the timer. If it lands at 55 seconds you have space for a pause that means something. If it lands at 61 you are cutting in the edit, and cuts stop being free once you are looking at footage.

How we write scripts that hit the runtime

Client scripts start from a call, not a blank page. We pull out the stories, opinions and objections you already handle every week, turn them into hooks, and write in your words so nothing feels like reading someone else's copy. Then we time it, cut it to the slot, and send it in a format you can read straight to camera. Filming direction, editing and posting follow the same week.

Delivery is the last thing that moves the runtime, and memorising is where most people lose the seconds they just cut. So once the wording fits, read it off the screen instead of memorising it, and you get the runtime you wrote plus a take that sounds like you rather than someone reciting.

If you would rather never write one of these again, that is the part we take off your hands. This is how we build a month of scripts for a client, from the call to the finished posting schedule.