Guides · Treadmill speed to pace
What speed is 7.0 on a treadmill? The full speed to pace chart
You are on the belt and the display says 7.0. The number you want is your pace, and it is 8:34 per mile. Here is the whole chart, in both units.
On a treadmill set to miles per hour, 7.0 is a pace of 8 minutes 34 seconds per mile. On a machine set to kilometres per hour, the same 7.0 is a 13 minute 48 second mile, so check the unit before you trust the chart.
Treadmill speed to pace, the whole chart
Your treadmill talks in miles per hour, which is a car number. You think in pace. Here is every common setting turned into minutes per mile.
Treadmill speed to pace, machines set in mph
Set speed, the pace it works out to, and the same speed in kilometres per hour.
| Speed (mph) | Pace per mile | Same speed (km/h) |
|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | 20:00 | 4.8 |
| 3.5 | 17:09 | 5.6 |
| 4.0 | 15:00 | 6.4 |
| 4.5 | 13:20 | 7.2 |
| 5.0 | 12:00 | 8.0 |
| 5.5 | 10:55 | 8.9 |
| 6.0 | 10:00 | 9.7 |
| 6.5 | 9:14 | 10.5 |
| 7.0 | 8:34 | 11.3 |
| 7.5 | 8:00 | 12.1 |
| 8.0 | 7:30 | 12.9 |
| 8.5 | 7:04 | 13.7 |
| 9.0 | 6:40 | 14.5 |
| 9.5 | 6:19 | 15.3 |
| 10.0 | 6:00 | 16.1 |
| 10.5 | 5:43 | 16.9 |
| 11.0 | 5:27 | 17.7 |
| 11.5 | 5:13 | 18.5 |
| 12.0 | 5:00 | 19.3 |
Paces are rounded to the nearest second. The conversion is 60 divided by the speed, so a 10 minute mile is exactly 6.0 and an 8 minute mile is 7.5.
If your treadmill is set in kilometres
Plenty of machines run in kilometres per hour. On a machine you have never used, it is easy to read the number without checking the unit. A display showing 7.0 in kilometres is running 13:48 per mile, which turns the tempo run you planned into a walk.
Treadmill speed to pace, machines set in km/h
Set speed, pace per kilometre, pace per mile, and the same speed in miles per hour.
| Speed (km/h) | Pace per km | Pace per mile | Same speed (mph) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | 12:00 | 19:19 | 3.1 |
| 6.0 | 10:00 | 16:06 | 3.7 |
| 7.0 | 8:34 | 13:48 | 4.3 |
| 8.0 | 7:30 | 12:04 | 5.0 |
| 9.0 | 6:40 | 10:44 | 5.6 |
| 10.0 | 6:00 | 9:39 | 6.2 |
| 11.0 | 5:27 | 8:47 | 6.8 |
| 12.0 | 5:00 | 8:03 | 7.5 |
| 13.0 | 4:37 | 7:26 | 8.1 |
| 14.0 | 4:17 | 6:54 | 8.7 |
| 15.0 | 4:00 | 6:26 | 9.3 |
| 16.0 | 3:45 | 6:02 | 9.9 |
| 17.0 | 3:32 | 5:41 | 10.6 |
| 18.0 | 3:20 | 5:22 | 11.2 |
| 19.0 | 3:09 | 5:05 | 11.8 |
| 20.0 | 3:00 | 4:50 | 12.4 |
One mile is 1.609 kilometres. Speeds in miles per hour are rounded to one decimal place, the way a treadmill shows them.
Why the chart is only half the answer
Every chart on the internet, the two above included, converts the number on the display, and none of them can tell you that number is true. The 7.0 is a metronome, not a stopwatch. It clicks at the tempo you asked for, and nothing on the machine times the belt under your feet, so the display reads 7.0 whether you are running 8:34 miles or not. The worst I have measured was four miles logged as five, on a machine I use every week. That is a mile of marathon training I never actually ran, and no chart on this page would have caught it. A stopwatch and a seam on the belt will tell you, and so will your phone.
Treadwell measures the belt itself, through your iPhone Pro's camera and LiDAR sensor. Point it at the belt while the machine runs and a few seconds later you have the number the display was supposed to be showing you. Set 7.0, measure, and you know whether you are running the 8:34 in the chart or, on a belt two percent slow, an 8:45 you had no way to see. It never reads the display and never watches your stride, so a machine you have never used is no harder than your own. On a hotel treadmill it had never seen, it landed within half a percent of my handheld tachometer. If it cannot get a reading it trusts, it tells you, rather than handing you a pace it is not sure of.
Find the pace you are actually running
Get your treadmill's true belt speed in seconds. Treadwell needs an iPhone Pro.
Quick answers
What speed is 7.0 on a treadmill? On a treadmill set to miles per hour, 7.0 is a pace of 8 minutes 34 seconds per mile. On a treadmill set to kilometres per hour, 7.0 is 8 minutes 34 seconds per kilometre, which is a much slower 13 minutes 48 seconds per mile.
How fast is 4.0 on a treadmill? In miles per hour, 4.0 is a 15 minute mile, which is a brisk walk for most people. In kilometres per hour, 4.0 is a 15 minute kilometre, or about a 24 minute mile.
What treadmill speed is a 10 minute mile? A 10 minute mile is 6.0 miles per hour. A 9 minute mile is 6.7, an 8 minute mile is 7.5, and a 7 minute mile is 8.6.
What treadmill speed is a 30 minute 5K? A 5K in 30 minutes is 10.0 kilometres per hour, which is 6.2 miles per hour and a 9 minute 39 second mile. A 25 minute 5K is 12.0 kilometres per hour, or 7.5 miles per hour.
Sources.
- Belt speeds of 98% to 103% of the set speed across four treadmills in known condition: Willwacher et al., Scientific Reports 11:2244 (2021). Two of the four were laboratory instrumented machines rather than ordinary gym treadmills. The two percent used above is the gentle end of that range, applied to one speed as an illustration rather than measured on any belt.
- That nothing watches the belt's top running surface is what we found across every motorized manual we could read. It is the absence of a documented sensor there, not a claim quoted from any manual.
- The 5 miles against 4 is my own run on a machine I use regularly, reported from my own training rather than from a captured test file.
- The hotel treadmill figure is the accuracy of our own reading against the tachometer, on a machine we had never measured. It is not a statement about that treadmill's display, which was not part of the test.
- Pace conversions on this page are arithmetic: 60 divided by miles per hour gives minutes per mile, and one mile is 1.609 kilometres.