At 150 words per minute, a five-minute speech contains about 750 words. That is a planning estimate, not a promise that every speaker will finish on time. Pauses, audience reactions, unfamiliar names and slide changes all use time without adding words.
TheDailyUtils speaking-time estimate uses 150 words per minute. A 600-word draft therefore gives an estimated four minutes, leaving roughly one minute for pauses within a five-minute slot. A 900-word draft estimates six minutes before those pauses.
Paste only the words you intend to say. Slide headings, speaker notes and stage directions inflate the count if they remain in the text. Keep a separate rehearsal copy with those cues if they help your delivery.
Read a representative passage aloud for one minute. Count the words you actually spoke, not the words you hoped to cover. Divide your full draft's word count by that measured rate to get a more personal estimate.
For example, 720 words at 120 words per minute takes six minutes. The same script at 150 takes 4.8 minutes. Speeding up is not always the best solution; cutting a repeated explanation may preserve clarity better.
Time yourself from the opening sentence through the final pause, including slide transitions. Revise the script, count it again, and repeat the rehearsal. The counter makes editing faster; the full spoken run tells you whether the talk actually fits.