How long should a video script be? Word counts for 15 to 90 seconds

Key takeaways

• Conversational English runs at about 150 words a minute, or two and a half words a second.
• That is roughly 38 words for 15 seconds, 75 for 30, 150 for 60 and 225 for 90.
• A 30-second script is a hook, three short points and a close.
• When a script runs long, cut words. Reading faster only makes it harder to follow.

How many words fit in a short video?

About two and a half words a second. The National Center for Voice and Speech puts the average rate of speech for English speakers in the United States at about 150 words a minute (Voice Qualities). That gives you roughly 75 words for a 30-second video and 150 for a minute.

That’s less than most people expect. Seventy-five words is about five sentences, or one short paragraph.

Here are the budgets at three paces, for the lengths short videos are usually cut to:

Use the middle column unless you have a reason not to. It’s the pace of someone explaining something to a friend, which is what most short videos are.

Why does pace change the count so much?

Because a short video magnifies it. The gap between a slow read and a fast one is 50 words over a minute, a third of the whole script. Guess wrong and you either run out of video or run out of things to say.

Slow, around 130 words a minute, suits anything where the picture does the work: a recipe, a product close-up, a calm walkthrough. The pauses are part of it.

Natural, around 150, is a person talking to camera without rushing.

Fast, around 180, is the energetic voiceover you hear on a lot of short-form video. It holds attention, but it’s tiring over a full minute and leaves no room for a point to land.

Which are you? Read two sentences of your script aloud with a stopwatch running. Most people are faster on camera than they think.

How long should the video itself be?

As long as the idea needs, and no longer. The platforms give you far more room than a short video should use. YouTube counts a square or vertical video of up to three minutes as a Short (YouTube Help, Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts). Instagram lets you record much longer Reels, but says that “Reels over 3 minutes won’t be recommended to new audiences” (Instagram Help Center, Record a reel on Instagram).

So three minutes is a ceiling both of them point to. It isn’t a target. A video that makes one point well in 25 seconds beats one that makes the same point in 90.

A rough guide by what you’re making:

• One tip, one fact, one reaction: 15 to 30 seconds, 40 to 75 words.
• A short list or a how-to with three steps: 30 to 60 seconds, 75 to 150 words.
• A story or an explanation with a turn in it: 60 to 90 seconds, 150 to 225 words.

Anything beyond that is a different kind of video, and deserves a different kind of script.

What does a 30-second script look like?

Seventy-five words, split four ways. This is a working shape, not a law, but it’s a dependable place to start:

• The hook: about 10 words. One line that says what the viewer gets.
• Three points: 15 to 18 words each. One idea a sentence, or two short sentences.
• The close: 10 to 15 words. What to do next, or the line that ties it up.

Written out, that’s a hook, three beats and an ending. It reads as almost nothing on the page. Said aloud, with a breath between the beats, it fills half a minute.

The same shape stretches. For 60 seconds, give each of the three points two sentences and an example. Don’t add a fourth and fifth point; a minute with five points feels more rushed than 30 seconds with three.

How do you cut a script that runs long?

Take out, don’t speed up. Reading faster turns a script that’s too long into a video that’s hard to follow. Cutting works better, and there’s nearly always something to cut.

Start with the opening. “Hey everyone, so today I wanted to talk about…” is 11 words that say nothing. Begin on the hook.

Cut the sentence that repeats the last one. Spoken drafts say most things twice. Keep the better version.

Swap phrases for words. “In order to” is “to”. “At this point in time” is “now”. “A large number of” is “many”.

Drop one point. If you’re still 20 words over, the script has one idea too many. Lose the weakest and the rest improves.

Let the picture carry it. Anything the viewer can see doesn’t need saying. If the screen shows the price, the voice can skip it.

Time your script

Paste it in. The timer counts the words, estimates the spoken length at the pace you pick, and tells you how far over or under your target you are. It runs in your browser, and your script isn’t stored or sent anywhere.

Your script

Spoken length

0:00

0 words at 150 words a minute

A 30 s video holds about 75 words at this pace.

Target length

15 s30 s60 s90 s3 min

Pace, in words a minute

Slow · 130Natural · 150Fast · 180

Read the result as an estimate. Pauses, emphasis and your own rhythm all move it by a few seconds. Before you record, read the script aloud once against a stopwatch.

What about the words on screen?

They follow a different limit. Reading is faster than listening, so on-screen text can run quicker than speech. TikTok’s guidance for advertisers is to show 5 to 10 words a second when you use text (TikTok for Business, Creative best practices for performance ads, updated June 2025).

That’s two to four times a natural speaking pace. So captions that follow the voice are always comfortably readable. Trouble starts when a second block of text, a headline or a list, appears while the captions are still running. The viewer can read one or the other, not both.

If a video has no voice at all, only text on screen, budget by reading speed and by how long each line stays up. A line of eight words needs a second or so to read, and a moment more to register.

Sources

• National Center for Voice and Speech, Voice Qualities (tutorial, archived), retrieved 12 October 2026: ncvs.org
• YouTube Help, Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts, retrieved 12 October 2026: support.google.com/youtube/answer/15424877
• Instagram Help Center, Record a reel on Instagram, retrieved 12 October 2026: help.instagram.com/2720958398006062
• TikTok for Business Help Center, Creative best practices for performance ads, updated June 2025, retrieved 12 October 2026: ads.tiktok.com/help/article/creative-best-practices
• The slow and fast paces (130 and 180 words a minute) are working figures either side of the average, the ones the timer in this post uses.

Questions

How many words is a 30-second video script?

About 75 words at a natural speaking pace of 150 words a minute. Spoken slowly it is about 65, and spoken fast about 90.

How many words is a 60-second video script?

About 150 words at a natural pace, 130 spoken slowly and 180 spoken fast.

How many words fit in 15 seconds?

About 38 at a natural pace: a hook and one or two short sentences. It is enough for a single tip or fact, and not much more.

What is the best length for a short video?

The shortest that makes the point. One tip fits in 15 to 30 seconds; a three-step how-to in 30 to 60. YouTube counts videos of up to three minutes as Shorts, which is a ceiling, not a target.