science audiobook
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking is about 5 hours long at normal speed. At 1.5× that drops to about 3 hr 20 min, and at 2× to about 2 hr 30 min.
Runtimes are approximate and vary slightly by edition and retailer. Check the length shown in Audible, Libby, Spotify or Apple Books for your copy.
| Playback speed | Total time |
|---|---|
| 0.8× | 6 hr 15 min |
| 1× | 5 hr |
| 1.25× | 4 hr |
| 1.5× | 3 hr 20 min |
| 1.75× | 2 hr 51 min |
| 2× | 2 hr 30 min |
| 2.5× | 2 hr |
| 3× | 1 hr 40 min |
Plan your listen
At one hour a day and normal speed, you'll finish in about 5 days. Speed it up to 1.5× and the same hour a day finishes it in about 4 days. At 45 minutes a day and 1.5×, plan on about 5 days.
The table below shows whole days needed for every combination of speed and daily listening time.
| Speed | 15 min | 30 min | 45 min | 1 hr | 1.5 hr | 2 hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1× | 20 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 1.25× | 16 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 1.5× | 14 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 2× | 10 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
How long, really
At 5 hr, A Brief History of Time is about one long-haul flight leg or a single weekend afternoon. That's longer than about 4% of the 169 popular audiobooks we list.
Spoken at an average narration pace, A Brief History of Time comes to roughly 47,000 words. Narrators vary, so a faster or slower reader will shift that number and the total runtime.
Want to try other speeds or your own schedule? Use the audiobook speed calculator or the listening goal calculator to find the daily minutes you need.
Track it as you listen
Booktrace is an iPhone audiobook tracker that logs your sessions, chapters, narrator and playback speed in one place, so you can see real progress through A Brief History of Time and how many hours remain, whichever app you listen in.
Common questions
The A Brief History of Time audiobook by Stephen Hawking runs about 5 hours at normal (1x) speed. Exact runtime can differ by a few minutes between editions and stores.
At 1.5x speed, A Brief History of Time takes about 3 hours and 20 minutes. At 2x it takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
At one hour a day and normal speed, A Brief History of Time takes about 5 days. At 1.5x speed and an hour a day it takes about 4 days. At 30 minutes a day and normal speed it takes about 10 days.
Compared with the 169 popular audiobooks on this site, A Brief History of Time is longer than about 4% of them. At 5 hr it is about one long-haul flight leg or a single weekend afternoon.
