Presto Tempo in BPM
Presto is commonly given as 168 to 200 BPM. It is one of the fastest standard markings, and its range overlaps with Vivace at the bottom.
Timing is scheduled on the Web Audio clock, so the beat stays steady even while the page is busy. Tap the tempo button in time with a song to set the BPM by ear. Keyboard: space starts and stops, up and down arrows change the tempo by 1 (hold shift for 10), escape stops.
The metronome above starts at 184 BPM, the middle of the Presto range. Drag the tempo anywhere between 168 and 200 to hear the whole range.
What Presto means
Presto translates as quick. Presto is where the physical limits of the instrument start to matter more than the marking. At 200 BPM each beat lasts 300 milliseconds, so a passage in sixteenth notes is asking for a note every 75 milliseconds, which is close to the rate at which repeated single-finger articulation stops being possible for most players.
That is also why a Presto is often practised at half tempo and then advanced in small steps. Jumping straight to the marked tempo trains the errors as reliably as it trains the notes.
Why the BPM range is a convention, not a measurement
This is the part most tempo tables leave out. Italian tempo words were in general use for about a century before Maelzel's metronome made a beats-per-minute number practical at all, and the composers who wrote them never defined them numerically. Every published range, including the 168 to 200BPM given here, is somebody's later reconstruction, and different sources disagree by ten or twenty beats per minute at the edges.
Treat the number as a region and the word as the instruction. On a site that computes frequencies to two decimals it is worth being explicit about which figures are exact and which are conventional: the frequencies are exact, these ranges are not.
Where Presto sits against the other markings
| Marking | Means | Commonly quoted BPM |
|---|---|---|
| Largo | broad, wide | 40 to 60 |
| Adagio | at ease, comfortable | 66 to 76 |
| Andante | walking | 76 to 108 |
| Moderato | moderate | 108 to 120 |
| Allegro | cheerful, lively | 120 to 168 |
| Vivace | lively, vivacious | 168 to 176 |
| Presto | quick | 168 to 200 |
| Prestissimo | as quick as possible | 200 to 240 |
Exact tempos inside the Presto range
Each of these opens the metronome already running at that tempo, with its own notes on what the speed is used for.
Frequently asked questions
How many BPM is Presto?
Commonly 168 to 200 BPM. Because the range overlaps with Vivace, some tables start Presto at 178 or 180 instead.
How fast is one beat at 200 BPM?
300 milliseconds. Sixteenth notes at that tempo fall every 75 milliseconds, which is why Presto passages are usually built up from a much slower practice tempo.
Other tempo markings
More timing tools
Frequencies on this page are computed at build time from twelve tone equal temperament with A4 = 440 Hz, using the twelfth root of two (about 1.059463) per semitone. Nothing is typed in by hand. See the full method and sources. Maintained by FusionStudios. Last reviewed: .