How do I convert word count to audiobook hours?

Divide your manuscript's word count by the narration speed in words per minute, then by 60. At the industry-standard ~150 words per minute, a 90,000-word book lands around 10 hours of finished audio. The calculator above does it instantly.

What is PFH (per finished hour)?

PFH is how narrators and studios price audiobook work — a rate per finished hour of edited, ready-to-publish audio. Enter your narrator's PFH rate and the calculator multiplies it by the estimated finished hours to project the narration cost.

How much does a human narrator cost per finished hour?

Budget $350–$400 per finished hour all-in at typical 2026 marketplace rates. The low end is a union ACX minimum of $250 per finished hour for the narrator plus about $100 for proofing, editing and mastering; the wider industry standard is about $400, split roughly evenly between narration and post-production. A 10-hour audiobook therefore runs $3,500–$4,000 before any royalty share.

How much recording and production time does an audiobook take?

Plan for roughly 2× the finished runtime in the booth and about 6.2× for the full pipeline — prep, recording, editing, proofing and mastering. A 10-hour audiobook is therefore around 20 hours of recording and 60+ hours end to end.

Free tool

How long will your audiobook be?

Turn a word or page count into finished runtime, recording time, full production hours and per-finished-hour narration cost. Everything updates live — no signup, nothing leaves your device.

Try it

Estimate your audiobook

Plug in a manuscript size and pace to project runtime, timeline and budget in seconds.

What are you counting?

Number of words

Narration speed150 wpm

130 (measured)150 (typical)170 (brisk)

Narrator rate — $ per finished hour (optional)

Leave blank to skip the cost estimate.

Estimated runtime

600:00min:sec

≈ 10 hr of listening time at your pace, from 90,000 words. Pricing below uses the standard conversion, not the slider.

Listening time at your pace: 10 hr
Est. recording time: 20 hr
Est. total production: 62 hr

Estimates use the audiobook industry standard of ~9,300 words per finished hour at 155 wpm. Recording runs roughly 2× finished time; full production (prep, recording, editing, proofing, mastering) about 6.2×. Your mileage will vary by pacing and material.

What this book costs to narrate

Priced on 9.7 hr of finished audio (9,300 words per finished hour, rounded up to the tenth — the same conversion a real quote uses).

Human narrator, all-in: $3,395–$3,880
AudioPod, standard: $184.30
AudioPod, with human quality control: $766.30

Already on a Creator, Pro or Studio plan? Narration comes out of your monthly credits — see what your plan includes.

Range basis: a union ACX minimum of $250 per finished hour for the narrator plus about $100 per finished hour for proofing, editing and mastering ($350 all-in); the wider industry standard is about $400 ($200 narration, $200 post-production). Figures from published narrator rate guides, 2026. Your own quotes will vary with genre, experience and whether royalty share is on the table.

Narrate this book with AudioPod

How it works

From manuscript to finished hours

The calculator uses the audiobook industry's standard math — word count over narration speed for runtime, with proven multipliers for recording and full production time.

Step 1

Count your words

Enter a word count, or a page count with words-per-page.

Step 2

Set the pace

Pick a narration speed between 130 and 170 words per minute.

Step 3

Get the numbers

Finished runtime, hours, recording, production and PFH cost.

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Ready to actually make the audiobook?

AudioPod Audiobook Studio turns your manuscript into a finished, chaptered audiobook — natural multilingual narration, custom voices, intro/outro music and export-ready files — on one free account.

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