Editing Time
Estimate how many hours editing a piece of writing takes.
About Editing Time
Light editing may cover a few thousand words an hour while deep line editing is far slower, so the chosen speed drives the total. Dividing by an eight-hour workday gives a calendar sense. Vague editing promises routinely blow deadlines, so translating a word count into hours makes a realistic schedule negotiable.
Formula
Editing Time
Editing hours = words / editing speed
- editing speed
- Words reviewed per hour including revisions
Worked example
With the default values below, Editing Time returns Editing Hours of 6.3. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Word countminimum 0
- 5,000
- Editing speedminimum 1 words/hour
- 800 words/hour
Results
- Editing Hours
- 6.3
- Editing Minutes
- 375
- Work Days
- 0.8
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Editing Time
- 3Editing Hours= 6.3
- 4Editing Minutes= 375
- 5Work Days= 0.8
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 2 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 1 decimal place, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Editing Time calculated?
Editing hours = words / editing speed Light editing may cover a few thousand words an hour while deep line editing is far slower, so the chosen speed drives the total. Dividing by an eight-hour workday gives a calendar sense.
Why does Editing Time matter?
Vague editing promises routinely blow deadlines, so translating a word count into hours makes a realistic schedule negotiable.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 2 inputs: Word count, Editing speed. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.