Goal understanding is the process by which interactants make inferences about others' objectives during conversation. Previous research has examined goal understanding without concern for the timing of goal pursuit. Accordingly, an experiment examined the timing of pursuers' efficiency in the communicative behavior employed to reach their goal. Results indicated that timing modified the relationship between pursuers' efficiency and detectors' accuracy and to a lesser extent detectors' certainty. Efficiency was positively correlated with accuracy for the initial minute of a 5-minute interaction but not subsequent minutes.