The short answer
Narrators read about 9,300 words an hour, about 155 words a minute, so to estimate an audiobook’s length, divide the word count by 9,300.1 A 90,000-word novel runs about 9 hours 40 minutes; a 10-hour audiobook is about 93,000 words.
- Words per finished hour
- ≈ 9,300
- Words per minute
- ≈ 155
- A 90,000-word novel
- ≈ 9 h 41 min
- A 10-hour audiobook
- ≈ 93,000 words
The 9,300-words-an-hour rule
ACX, the Audible platform where authors hire narrators, says “on average, most performers narrate about 9,300 words per hour” and tells authors to divide their book’s word count by 9,300 to estimate the finished length.1 That works out at 155 words a minute. Producers use it to price narration, because narrators charge per finished hour, and listeners can use it to judge how long a book will take.
Finished audio
- Average pace (155 words a minute)
- Slower and faster narrators
Word count to audiobook length
At ACX’s average pace, and at the speeds people often listen at:
| Words | Finished length | At 1.5× | At 2× |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 1 h 05 min | 0 h 43 min | 0 h 32 min |
| 20,000 | 2 h 09 min | 1 h 26 min | 1 h 05 min |
| 40,000 | 4 h 18 min | 2 h 52 min | 2 h 09 min |
| 60,000 | 6 h 27 min | 4 h 18 min | 3 h 14 min |
| 80,000 | 8 h 36 min | 5 h 44 min | 4 h 18 min |
| 90,000 | 9 h 41 min | 6 h 27 min | 4 h 50 min |
| 100,000 | 10 h 45 min | 7 h 10 min | 5 h 23 min |
| 120,000 | 12 h 54 min | 8 h 36 min | 6 h 27 min |
| 150,000 | 16 h 08 min | 10 h 45 min | 8 h 04 min |
| 200,000 | 21 h 30 min | 14 h 20 min | 10 h 45 min |
Audiobook hours to word count
Working the other way, from a length you see in a store to the size of the book:
| Audiobook length | About this many words | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 9,300 | Novella or short non-fiction |
| 3 hours | 27,900 | Novella or short non-fiction |
| 4 hours | 37,200 | Novella or short non-fiction |
| 5 hours | 46,500 | Short novel |
| 6 hours | 55,800 | Short novel |
| 8 hours | 74,400 | Short novel |
| 9 hours | 83,700 | Typical novel |
| 10 hours | 93,000 | Typical novel |
| 12 hours | 111,600 | Long novel |
| 15 hours | 139,500 | Long novel |
| 20 hours | 186,000 | Epic |
The size labels are a rough guide; publishers don’t agree on exact word counts for a novella or a novel.
What makes an audiobook longer or shorter
- The narrator’s pace. 9,300 is an average. A slow, dramatic read can be 10% longer; a brisk one 10% shorter.
- Genre. Dialogue-heavy fiction with many voices and pauses tends to run slower than straightforward non-fiction.
- What’s included. Introductions, afterwords, notes and opening and closing credits add time. ACX recommends not reading the table of contents.2
- Abridged or unabridged. An abridged edition is a shortened text and can be a fraction of the full length.
Is listening faster than reading?
At normal speed, no. A 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies put adults’ average silent reading rate in English at 238 words a minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, with most adults between 175 and 320.4 A narrator at 155 words a minute is slower than that, so a book you’d read in 6 hours takes about 10 to listen to.
Speed closes the gap: at 1.5× a narrator reaches about 233 words a minute, and at about 1.7× the pace matches average silent reading of fiction. The difference is that listening also fits into time you couldn’t read in: driving, walking, cooking. Our speed guide covers how fast you can listen and still follow.
Length and price
On Audible, length is one of the things that sets an audiobook’s price. ACX publishes the ranges recent titles have sold within for each length band:3
| Length | Retail price range |
|---|---|
| Under 1 hour | Under $7.40 |
| 1 to 3 hours | $5.55 to $13.20 |
| 3 to 5 hours | $7.55 to $15.55 |
| 5 to 10 hours | $11.15 to $20.65 |
| 10 to 20 hours | $12.95 to $24.90 |
| Over 20 hours | $16.40 to $32.95 |
Audible sets the final price itself and considers more than length, such as genre.3 For listeners, long books are where an Audible credit goes furthest; see Audible credits explained.
For authors: planning a production
Length drives cost. Narrators charge per finished hour, and ACX estimates about 6.2 hours of work for each finished hour from a new narrator: about 2 recording, 3 editing and 1.2 checking.2 For ACX, every file must also be 120 minutes or shorter, so a long chapter becomes several files.5
Manuscript AnalyzerDrop your manuscript (DOCX, EPUB or text) for its word count, finished length per chapter, and the names and words a narrator needs to know.Analyse my manuscript Narrator Cost CalculatorTurn the finished hours into a narration budget at any per-finished-hour rate.Open the tool