Swim Pace Calculator

1. Enter the distance you swam in metres.
2. Enter your time as minutes and seconds.
3. Read your pace per 100 metres, the swimmer standard.
4. Check your pace per 50 and your speed alongside it.

Swim pace is how long it takes you to cover a set distance, almost always given per 100 metres. It is the core number swimmers use to gauge fitness, set training targets and predict race times, in the same way runners think in minutes per kilometre.

Because pace is per 100, it lets you compare swims of any length on a single scale. A 400 metre effort and a 1500 metre effort can be compared directly by their pace, even though the total times are very different. That common scale is what makes pace so useful in a training log: a swimmer can glance back over months of sessions and see progress as a steadily falling pace per 100, regardless of how far each swim happened to be.

1. Turn your time into total seconds.
2. Divide by the distance and multiply by 100 for the pace per 100 metres.
3. Halve it for the pace per 50 metre length.
4. Divide the distance by the time for your speed in metres per second.

Pace and speed are two views of the same swim: a faster speed means fewer seconds per 100, and a slower speed means more, but swimmers almost always think and talk in pace per 100.

You swim 400 metres in 6 minutes 40 seconds, which is 400 seconds. Your pace is 400 divided by 400, times 100, which is 100 seconds, or 1 minute 40 seconds per 100 metres. That is a speed of exactly 1 metre per second, and a pace per 50 of 50 seconds. Swim the same 400 in 6 minutes and your pace drops to 1 minute 30 per 100. Small changes here matter more than they look: shaving ten seconds off a 100 metre pace turns a ten minute 400 into a swim well under nine, so pace is where nearly all real swimming improvement shows up first.

Fitness and Technique

Efficient stroke and strong fitness let you hold a faster pace for longer.

Distance

Sprint pace over 50 metres is far quicker than the pace you can hold for 1500 metres.

Pool vs Open Water

Pool turns give a push off each wall, so pool pace is usually faster than open water.

Fatigue

Pace naturally slows through a long swim, so an even pace is a mark of good pacing.

Typical pace per 100 metres for a 400 metre swim by level.

These are broad guides; your best pace over a sprint will always be faster than over a long distance.

Tracking Fitness

Compare your pace over a set distance from session to session.

Planning a Race

Work out the pace you need to hold for a target finish time.

Setting Training

Base your interval targets on your current pace per 100.

1. Comparing Different Distances

Do not expect your sprint pace over 50 to hold over 1500; pace slows with distance.

2. Forgetting the Pool Length

A short-course pool with more turns often gives a faster pace than a long-course one.

3. Timing Only the Fast Reps

Average your pace over a full swim, not just the quick sections.

4. Ignoring Rest

Decide whether your time is continuous or includes rest, and stay consistent.

The pace maths is exact for the distance and time you enter. Whether it predicts other swims depends on the distance and conditions being similar.

Divide your time by the distance and multiply by 100 for the pace per 100 metres. 400 metres in 6:40 is a pace of 1:40 per 100.

It varies by level: around 2:00 per 100 is a solid recreational pace, 1:40 is a fit swimmer, and 1:15 or faster is competitive.

Pace is time per 100 metres; speed is metres per second. They are two views of the same swim, one the inverse of the other.

It is the swimmer standard, letting you compare efforts of any length on one scale, just as runners use minutes per kilometre.

Yes. A short-course pool has more turns and wall push-offs, so pace is usually faster than in a long-course pool or open water.

Multiply your target pace per 100 by the race distance in hundreds. A 1:40 pace over 1500 metres predicts a 25 minute swim.

Fatigue and technique breakdown slow you over a long swim, so your sprint pace is always faster than your distance pace.

Only if you want your overall pace. For a true swim pace, use the continuous swim time without rest.

No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser and nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.

• Swimming (sport) (Wikipedia).
• Pace (speed) (Wikipedia).
• Swimming pool lengths (Wikipedia).