Average Speed Calculator

Average speed calculator for trips and travel time planning

This Average Speed Calculator is built for one practical decision: estimating how fast you travelled (or need to travel) over a route so you can sanity-check a trip plan. If you know the distance and how long it took, average speed gives you a single, comparable number you can use to evaluate a drive, a bus route, a delivery run, or any point-to-point travel where the question is simply “how fast, on average?”

The calculator works with kilometers or miles. Enter the distance, then enter the total travel time using hours and minutes (seconds are optional). Click calculate and you will get your average speed in km/h or mph, plus your pace, which is the inverse of speed expressed as minutes per kilometer or minutes per mile. Pace is useful because it converts the same information into a time-per-distance number that is often easier to visualize.

Average speed is not your top speed, and it does not attempt to model stops, traffic lights, rest breaks, or terrain. It is a simple total-distance divided by total-time calculation. That simplicity is the point: it is fast to compute and easy to compare across trips. If you want to plan a trip, you can use the output to decide whether your assumed speed is realistic for the road type and conditions you expect, then adjust your expectations before you leave.

Assumptions and how to use this calculator

• Average speed is calculated as total distance divided by total elapsed time, including any stops you included in your time.
• Hours and minutes are treated as a single continuous time value. If you enter seconds, they are added to the total time.
• If you enter distance in miles and request km/h output (or the reverse), the calculator converts using 1 mile = 1.609344 km.
• Very small times for long distances can produce unrealistic speeds. If your inputs imply an extreme speed, recheck units and time fields.
• This tool is for point-to-point travel and trip planning. It is not a GPS track analyzer and it does not compute segment-by-segment speeds.

Common questions

What is the difference between speed and pace?

Speed is distance per hour (km/h or mph). Pace is time per unit distance (min/km or min/mile). They describe the same performance from opposite angles. Higher speed means lower pace. Many people find pace easier to interpret because it tells you how long each kilometer or mile effectively took.

Should I include stops in the time?

Include stops if your goal is real-world trip planning, because stops affect when you arrive. Exclude stops only if you are trying to estimate moving speed. The calculator does not separate these, so the decision is yours based on what you want the number to represent.

Why does my result look too high or too low?

The common causes are unit mismatch and time entry mistakes. For example, entering minutes into the hours field, forgetting to include minutes, or using miles while reading the result as km/h will distort the answer. Also check that you did not enter distance with the wrong unit (for example, entering 120 when the real distance was 120 miles, not 120 km).

Can I use this to estimate travel time instead?

Not directly. This page is locked to calculating average speed from distance and time. If you want travel time, you need a different calculator that takes distance and expected speed as inputs and outputs time. Use this one when you already have time and distance and want the implied average speed.

How can I make the result more realistic for planning?

Use a time value that reflects the conditions you expect, not a best-case run. For road travel, a realistic average often ends up well below speed limits once you include intersections, congestion, and slow sections. If you are using the calculator to set an expectation, build in a buffer by assuming a slightly lower average speed than you think you will achieve.