fiction audiobook
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho narrated by Jeremy Irons is about 4 hours and 3 minutes long at normal speed. At 1.5× that drops to about 2 hr 42 min, and at 2× to about 2 hr 2 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× | 5 hr 4 min |
| 1× | 4 hr 3 min |
| 1.25× | 3 hr 14 min |
| 1.5× | 2 hr 42 min |
| 1.75× | 2 hr 19 min |
| 2× | 2 hr 2 min |
| 2.5× | 1 hr 37 min |
| 3× | 1 hr 21 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 3 days. At 45 minutes a day and 1.5×, plan on about 4 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× | 17 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 1.25× | 13 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 1.5× | 11 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 2× | 9 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
How long, really
At 4 hr 3 min, The Alchemist is about one long-haul flight leg or a single weekend afternoon. That's longer than about 3% of the 169 popular audiobooks we list.
Spoken at an average narration pace, The Alchemist comes to roughly 38,000 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 The Alchemist and how many hours remain, whichever app you listen in.
Common questions
The The Alchemist audiobook by Paulo Coelho runs about 4 hours and 3 minutes at normal (1x) speed, in the edition narrated by Jeremy Irons. Exact runtime can differ by a few minutes between editions and stores.
At 1.5x speed, The Alchemist takes about 2 hours and 42 minutes. At 2x it takes about 2 hours and 2 minutes.
At one hour a day and normal speed, The Alchemist takes about 5 days. At 1.5x speed and an hour a day it takes about 3 days. At 30 minutes a day and normal speed it takes about 9 days.
Compared with the 169 popular audiobooks on this site, The Alchemist is longer than about 3% of them. At 4 hr 3 min it is about one long-haul flight leg or a single weekend afternoon.
