Subtitle CPS calculator
— characters per second.
Type a caption, set the duration, see whether it reads at Netflix's 17 CPS, BBC's 15 CPS, or any custom target.
- · 12 CPS — children's TV (Netflix children, BBC junior).
- · 15 CPS — BBC adult, EBU broadcast.
- · 17 CPS — Netflix adult, Amazon, Disney+.
- · 21 CPS — TED, fast-paced talks.
- · 25 CPS — short-form social ceiling.
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Frequently asked
What is CPS?+
Characters per second. Total characters in a caption divided by its duration in seconds. It's the standard reading-speed metric used by Netflix, BBC, EBU, and most professional subtitle workflows.
What's a 'good' CPS?+
Depends on the audience. Netflix caps adult English content at 17 CPS, BBC at 15. Children's content drops to 12. TED talks tolerate 21. Short-form social can push to 25 because viewers expect to re-read.
Why CPS instead of WPM?+
Word lengths vary across languages and content types. CPS gives a more reliable reading-load measure. Most professional tools lint CPS before delivery; WPM is the friendly sanity check.
Do spaces count toward the CPS calculation?+
Yes — every visible character counts, including spaces. This matches Netflix and BBC convention.
What if I want to check a whole subtitle file at once?+
Use the Reading Speed Checker — it parses an entire .srt or .vtt file and flags every cue that exceeds the threshold.