science fiction audiobook · Foundation
Foundation by Isaac Asimov is about 8 hours long at normal speed. At 1.5× that drops to about 5 hr 20 min, and at 2× to about 4 hr.
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× | 10 hr |
| 1× | 8 hr |
| 1.25× | 6 hr 24 min |
| 1.5× | 5 hr 20 min |
| 1.75× | 4 hr 34 min |
| 2× | 4 hr |
| 2.5× | 3 hr 12 min |
| 3× | 2 hr 40 min |
Plan your listen
At one hour a day and normal speed, you'll finish in about 8 days. Speed it up to 1.5× and the same hour a day finishes it in about 6 days. At 45 minutes a day and 1.5×, plan on about 8 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× | 32 | 16 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| 1.25× | 26 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
| 1.5× | 22 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| 2× | 16 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
How long, really
At 8 hr, Foundation is roughly a cross-country flight from New York to Los Angeles with time to spare. That's longer than about 21% of the 169 popular audiobooks we list.
Spoken at an average narration pace, Foundation comes to roughly 74,000 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 Foundation and how many hours remain, whichever app you listen in.
Common questions
The Foundation audiobook by Isaac Asimov runs about 8 hours at normal (1x) speed. Exact runtime can differ by a few minutes between editions and stores.
At 1.5x speed, Foundation takes about 5 hours and 20 minutes. At 2x it takes about 4 hours.
At one hour a day and normal speed, Foundation takes about 8 days. At 1.5x speed and an hour a day it takes about 6 days. At 30 minutes a day and normal speed it takes about 16 days.
Compared with the 169 popular audiobooks on this site, Foundation is longer than about 21% of them. At 8 hr it is roughly a cross-country flight from New York to Los Angeles with time to spare.
