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A 10-minute talk is about 1,300 words. An X post is 280 characters. Meta descriptions cut at ~155. Every count updates live as you type.
Every writing task has a hidden limit: the 650-word college essay, the 280-character post, the 155-character meta description, the 10-minute speech. This counter tracks words, characters both ways, sentences, and paragraphs live, then converts to the times that actually matter — reading time at the adult average of 200 wpm and speaking time at presentation pace, 130 wpm.
Writers and students use it against limits: live words, characters, sentences, reading time at 200 wpm and speaking at 130 — a 10-minute talk is ~1,300 words.
About 650 words at the standard presentation pace of 130 words per minute — and pace matters more than people think. Conversation runs 150–160 wpm, audiobook narrators hold 150–160, but clear public speaking lands at 120–140 wpm because audiences need processing time. TED talks average around 140–150 wpm; auctioneers hit 250+. The preparation math: write the talk, count the words, divide by 130, and if it runs long, cut words rather than planning to talk faster — speed-reading your speech is the number-one sign of an unprepared speaker. For slides, the matching heuristic is roughly one slide per minute, so 650 words pairs with about five slides.
X (Twitter): 280 characters. SMS: 160 per segment — longer texts split and sometimes scramble order. Google meta description: ~155–160 characters before truncation in search results; title tags cut at ~60. Instagram captions: 2,200 max but truncate at ~125. LinkedIn posts truncate at ~140 before "see more." YouTube titles: 100 characters, descriptions show ~157 before folding. College application essays (Common App): 650 words hard cap. The SEO nuance: meta limits are pixels, not characters — Google truncates around 920–1,000 pixels, which is why 155 characters of wide letters (WWW) cut sooner than 155 of narrow ones (iii). Draft to 150 characters and you are safe under both rules.
Word count ÷ reading speed. The adult silent-reading average is about 200–230 words per minute for non-fiction (this tool uses 200 for conservative estimates); technical material drops to 100–150, fiction skimming rises to 250–300. Medium built its signature "X min read" label on exactly this math at 265 wpm — theirs runs faster because it targets engaged skimmers. Where the number earns its keep: newsletters that respect reader time (the 3-minute read converts better than the 12-minute one), documentation pages that warn "15 min" honestly, and meeting agendas that price agenda items in minutes of reading. For comprehension-critical material — contracts, medical instructions — estimate at 150 wpm, because reading slowly enough to retain is a different exercise than reading.