Gaming

Speedrun Pace Calculator

Track split times and project finish time vs your PB or world record.

Quick Answer

Speedrun pace = current split sum + remaining PB splits. If you're 5 seconds ahead at the halfway mark, your projected PB is 5 seconds faster than current. Stay ahead through every split for a new PB. Sum of Best splits gives you the theoretical fastest possible time.

Splits (in seconds)

Enter PB time and current run time per segment. Leave current at 0 for unfinished splits.

Current Total

1:28.00

Projected Finish

9:28.00

vs PB (9:30.00)

0:02.00

vs WR (9:00.00)

+0:28.00

About the Speedrun Pace Calculator

Speedrunning is the art of completing a video game as fast as possible, usually under specific category rules (Any%, 100%, glitchless, etc.). Pace tracking is core to the practice — without comparing your current run to past runs, you can't tell if you're on track for a PB until the very end.

How Splits Work

A speedrun is divided into segments called splits. Each split has a known PB time (your fastest completion of that segment in a successful run) and an all-time best time (gold split — fastest ever, regardless of run outcome). After completing a split, you compare current time to PB to know if you're ahead or behind pace.

The Tools Speedrunners Actually Use

LiveSplit is the dominant Windows tool for split tracking. It auto-loads splits via game-specific load detection, plays a sound on golden splits, and uploads to splits.io for community sharing. WSplit (older), Splitter (Mac), and BizHawk integrations exist for niche cases. This calculator does the math by hand for runners who want to plan a route without LiveSplit.

Sum of Best vs PB

Sum of Best is the time you'd get if you golded every split in one perfect run. It's a theoretical floor that's rarely achievable because the game state required for some golds is incompatible with the state needed for others. Top speedrunners get within 1-3% of Sum of Best for short games (under 30 minutes) and within 5-10% for long games (multi-hour).

Pace Strategy

Most runs end with a reset before completion. Runners reset when they fall significantly behind pace early — for example, dying in the first stage of a 30-minute run where reaching the end is unlikely to PB. Common reset thresholds: 10 seconds behind in a 5-min run, 30 seconds behind in a 15-min run, 90 seconds behind in an hour-long run.

Pair With Other Gaming Tools

Combine with our Elo Rating Calculator for ranked progression, the XP Required Calculator for grind projections, and the Gaming FPS Target Calculator if you're tuning your speedrun setup for low-latency play.

Verifying Your Run

For leaderboard submission on speedrun.com, you typically need: full unedited video of the run, splits visible on stream, and clear timing methodology (in-game time vs real-time). Some categories require frame-perfect timing analyzers. Always check the rules for your specific game and category before grinding.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do speedrunners track pace in real time?
Tools like LiveSplit (Windows), splits.io, and Splitter.io display cumulative time vs PB on each split. The runner sees if they're ahead/behind PB at every split, with color coding (gold/green ahead, red behind). Most runners commit splits to muscle memory after 50+ runs.
What's a 'gold split'?
A gold split is your fastest time ever for a specific segment, regardless of whether the run completed. Sum of all golds = your theoretical best time, often called 'Sum of Best.' Real PBs are usually 30-90 seconds slower than Sum of Best because you rarely gold every split in one run.
What does it mean to be 'ahead of PB'?
Ahead means your cumulative time at this split is faster than your PB cumulative at the same split. So if Stage 1 PB was 1:30 and your current run hit 1:28, you're 2 seconds ahead. Pace runs that stay ahead through all splits become new PBs.
Should I compare to PB or to WR?
Compare to your PB for personal motivation and consistency tracking. Compare to WR or top 10 splits when you're chasing a leaderboard rank. Most speedrunners use 'best ever' splits (gold splits) for theoretical pace, then PB or category WR for realistic comparison.
What's a 'sum of best' run?
Sum of Best is the theoretical fastest time you could achieve if you golded every split in a single run. It's almost never possible to actually achieve because the game state required for the gold on each split sometimes conflicts. Top runners get within 5-10 seconds of Sum of Best.