Treadmill pace conversion chart: mph to minutes per mile

Many treadmills in the United States show speed in miles per hour. Your training plan, your watch and your race goals all speak in minutes per mile. This chart bridges the two.

The formula

Pace (minutes per mile) = 60 ÷ speed (mph)

Speed (mph) = 60 ÷ pace (minutes per mile)

At 6 mph: 60 ÷ 6 = 10 minutes per mile. At 7.5 mph: 60 ÷ 7.5 = 8 minutes per mile.

For metric, multiply mph by 1.609344, the exact number of kilometers in a mile (NIST). Then pace per km = 60 ÷ km/h.

The full chart, 4 to 12 mph

All values come from the Pace Notes converter, rounded to the nearest second. The last column is your 5K time if you held that speed for 5,000 meters.

mph	km/h	Pace /mi	Pace /km	5K time
4.0	6.4	15:00	9:19	46:36
4.5	7.2	13:20	8:17	41:25
5.0	8.0	12:00	7:27	37:17
5.5	8.9	10:55	6:47	33:54
6.0	9.7	10:00	6:13	31:04
6.5	10.5	9:14	5:44	28:41
7.0	11.3	8:34	5:20	26:38
7.5	12.1	8:00	4:58	24:51
8.0	12.9	7:30	4:40	23:18
8.5	13.7	7:04	4:23	21:56
9.0	14.5	6:40	4:09	20:43
9.5	15.3	6:19	3:55	19:37
10.0	16.1	6:00	3:44	18:38
10.5	16.9	5:43	3:33	17:45
11.0	17.7	5:27	3:23	16:57
11.5	18.5	5:13	3:15	16:13
12.0	19.3	5:00	3:06	15:32

Notice the chart is not linear. Going from 5 to 6 mph takes two minutes off your mile. Going from 10 to 11 mph takes only 33 seconds. Each extra 0.1 mph matters less the faster you go.

Going the other way: the speed for your pace

Many treadmills adjust in steps of 0.1 mph. That means you often can't set your exact pace, only the nearest speed.

Target pace /mi	Exact speed	Set the belt to	Actual pace
12:00	5.00 mph	5.0	12:00
11:00	5.45 mph	5.5	10:55
10:30	5.71 mph	5.7	10:32
10:00	6.00 mph	6.0	10:00
9:30	6.32 mph	6.3	9:31
9:00	6.67 mph	6.7	8:57
8:30	7.06 mph	7.1	8:27
8:00	7.50 mph	7.5	8:00
7:30	8.00 mph	8.0	7:30
7:00	8.57 mph	8.6	6:59

Paces that end in :00 or :30 often fall between belt settings. A 9:00 mile needs 6.67 mph. The belt offers 6.6 or 6.7, and 6.7 gives 8:57.

Should you use a 1% incline?

Running on a treadmill at 0% grade is a bit easier than running outside at the same speed. The main reason is air: outdoors you push through it, on a treadmill you don't.

A 1996 study by A. M. Jones and J. H. Doust, in the Journal of Sports Sciences, measured the energy cost of running on a treadmill at different grades and compared it with outdoor running. They found that a 1% grade matched the energy cost of outdoor running best. The study tested speeds from 2.92 to 5.0 meters per second, roughly 10.5 to 18 km/h, or 6.5 to 11.2 mph, in runs of about 5 minutes.

So:

• At those speeds, 1% is a reasonable setting to make treadmill pace feel like road pace.
• Below about 6.5 mph, the study didn't test, and air resistance matters less at slow speeds anyway. 0% to 1% is fine.
• 1% doesn't simulate hills. For hill work, you need real incline.

Is the treadmill telling the truth?

The display shows the speed the treadmill thinks the belt is moving. Gym and home machines can drift out of calibration, and belts can slip under load. A few things help:

• Compare against a run on a measured track at the same effort.
• A footpod or a watch's indoor mode is an estimate too. Don't assume it's more accurate than the console.
• If two machines in the same gym feel different at the same speed, trust your effort, not the number.

Plan your workout

The treadmill pace converter goes from mph to pace and back, in miles and kilometers, and highlights your speed in the full chart. If you're training for a race goal, find the pace in the 5K pace chart or the marathon pace chart, then set the belt with this chart. To understand the math behind pace itself, read how to calculate running pace.