How to Use a Teleprompter: Setup, Pace, and Camera Tips

A teleprompter only helps if you use it correctly. The good news: the workflow is the same whether you are using a studio glass rig or an online teleprompter on a laptop. Follow these steps and the cue disappears into your delivery.

Set up your teleprompter station

1. Put the prompt by the lens. The closer the scrolling text sits to your camera, the more natural your eye contact — on a laptop, position the prompter window just below the webcam. A classic review of gaze research in Psychological Bulletin found that eye contact is central to how warm and credible an exchange feels, so anchoring the cue to the lens line matters more than screen size.
2. Use a second screen when possible. One screen runs the prompt, the other runs your camera app or meeting. A phone can serve as the prompt on a desk phone mount.
3. Choose a readable style. Large font, comfortable line spacing, and a focus guide anchor your eyes without re-reading lines.

Pace the read like a pro

• Set a real WPM. Start near 140 words per minute (conversational for most people) and test one practice pass first. Large-corpus speech-rate research measured natural English conversation anywhere from roughly 150 to over 200 words per minute, so the deliberately slower cue keeps a scripted read crisp rather than rushed.
• Nudge live while recording. Use the +/− keys to speed up or slow down mid-take without pausing the scroll.
• Skim ahead a beat. Read ahead of the guide line slightly so you hear yourself words ahead, not one word behind.
• Let the guide drift. Glance at the line, speak, and let your eyes float back to the lens. Don't fixate.

How to use an online teleprompter for video

Broadcast-style reading is where the browser tool shines. Record in your camera app, OBS, or screen recorder while the online teleprompter scrolls on its own screen or window, and the prompt stays out of that footage entirely. If you'd rather capture the prompt with your performance, add the prompter tab as a browser source in OBS (or a window capture in your screen recorder) and position it in a corner of your frame — the scrolling cue then appears right in the video while your camera and mic do the recording.

• Recording software: OBS Studio, QuickTime, or your camera app runs on screen one; the prompter scrolls on screen two.
• Interviews: mount the prompt on a phone beside the webcam for a locked-off, natural read.
• Third take rule: do one pacing pass, one timing pass, then record. The read sounds natural by take three.

Using a prompter in Zoom and webinars

Yes, you can prompt inside any meeting app. The simplest methods: run the teleprompter on a second screen, or share your screen with the scrolling prompt while you present. Keep your face on the primary camera and glance just below the lens, and viewers see you talking, not reading.

Practice, then prove it

Find your WPM, rehearse to the guide, and record. Because a free teleprompter is always available, you can run a full practice session any time: no studio, no cost, no watermark. When the pacing feels like conversation, you are using the tool right.