fantasy audiobook · Middle-earth
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien narrated by Rob Inglis is about 11 hours and 8 minutes long at normal speed. At 1.5× that drops to about 7 hr 25 min, and at 2× to about 5 hr 34 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× | 13 hr 55 min |
| 1× | 11 hr 8 min |
| 1.25× | 8 hr 54 min |
| 1.5× | 7 hr 25 min |
| 1.75× | 6 hr 22 min |
| 2× | 5 hr 34 min |
| 2.5× | 4 hr 27 min |
| 3× | 3 hr 43 min |
Plan your listen
At one hour a day and normal speed, you'll finish in about 12 days. Speed it up to 1.5× and the same hour a day finishes it in about 8 days. At 45 minutes a day and 1.5×, plan on about 10 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× | 45 | 23 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 6 |
| 1.25× | 36 | 18 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 5 |
| 1.5× | 30 | 15 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 4 |
| 2× | 23 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
How long, really
At 11 hr 8 min, The Hobbit is close to a full workday of listening, or a New York to London flight and then some. That's longer than about 48% of the 169 popular audiobooks we list.
Spoken at an average narration pace, The Hobbit comes to roughly 104,000 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 Hobbit and how many hours remain, whichever app you listen in.
Common questions
The The Hobbit audiobook by J.R.R. Tolkien runs about 11 hours and 8 minutes at normal (1x) speed, in the edition narrated by Rob Inglis. Exact runtime can differ by a few minutes between editions and stores.
At 1.5x speed, The Hobbit takes about 7 hours and 25 minutes. At 2x it takes about 5 hours and 34 minutes.
At one hour a day and normal speed, The Hobbit takes about 12 days. At 1.5x speed and an hour a day it takes about 8 days. At 30 minutes a day and normal speed it takes about 23 days.
Compared with the 169 popular audiobooks on this site, The Hobbit is longer than about 48% of them. At 11 hr 8 min it is close to a full workday of listening, or a New York to London flight and then some.
