It depends on the AP. Not all AP's go from 1 to 20 (and in fact I think most of them do not). The most recent one I played in only took us to level 13 (CoT), so definitely not up to 20.
The time it takes depends on which AP you choose, the party, and the gaming group. The last one took us perhaps a few months. If you played intensely everyday, you may be able to do one in a week.
If you played a more sandbox style, with a less intense focus, one could take a year or two.
The time for the characters really depend on the AP as well. The one we most recently played really was only a few months in game time, but with one like Kingmaker, I've heard of years passing in game time.
Having played one to completion and two to a significant part, I would say the entire thing will take at least months, probably a year or more to play, and that's if you play relatively frequently.
As for how long the story is in in-game time, that varies greatly. Some APs can well drag into years or even decades (such as Kingmaker), though most count on weeks or so between adventures.
From my understanding only Wrath of the Righteous gets characters 20+. I could be wrong. It appears all the other AP's get characters to about 15th - 16th level with some tips on how to further the campaign if desired.
I believe to your second question, a lot of that is flexible with the DM. Right now I am playing in a Rise of the Runelords campaign and we just started book 4 after our characters hunkered down at Fort Rannick during the winter months. Thus, that was a 3-4 month hiatus our characters used to craft and accomplish rp stuff. Some DM's would have probably just pushed their characters into book 4 immediately.
Were you curious about 1 or 2 in particular?
As far as how long they take, we seem to take about a year and a half playing 3 times a month for 3-4 hours to run a Paizo AP.
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Most of the Pathfinder APs are designed to take you up to around level 15. That said how long it takes to complete an AP depends on how often and for how long you game and if you nose-to-grindstone the sessions or are more casual.
My old group took 2 years+ to finish Rise of the Runelords gaming once a week(mostly) for a 4 hour session. Savage Tide (dungeon mag, 3.5) took roughly the same.
What GreyWolfLord said. It really depends. The only two that go from 1 to 20 that I know of are the anniversary edition of Rise of the Runelords and the recent mythic AP Wrath of the Righteous. I am currently playing in Carrion Crown and I think it tops out at 15? We've been playing it for more than 2 years (started in January 2012), but we only play once every 2 weeks for about 4-5 hours.
Just last session we realized that the characters started out in the game month of July and it is now October and they have gone from 1st level schlubs to level 13 powerhouses. So advancement can be very quick when running certain APs.
Edit: Scratch that. Rotrl may not go all the way to 20. It probably depends on how you run it.
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Most of the Pathfinder APs are designed to take you up to around level 15. That said how long it takes to complete an AP depends on how often and for how long you game and if you nose-to-grindstone the sessions or are more casual.
My old group took 2 years+ to finish Rise of the Runelords gaming once a week(mostly) for a 4 hour session. Savage Tide (dungeon mag, 3.5) took roughly the same.
EDIT- the character timeframe in RotRL was probably 1.5-2 years of in-game time, Savage Tide was around 2 years of in-game.
I have been in other games where level 1-15 took just a few months of in-game time to achieve. In general the paths seem to run around a year or two, with exceptions running longer or shorter but the bulk lasting a year or so.
Only wrath of the righteous goes from 1st to 20th level, all the others go up to 15-17th level (council of thieves seems to go up to 13 or 14).
From my experience it takes 4-6, 5 hour* sessions for each AP book.
The timeframe of each AP differs but they usually range from several weeks to a couple of years, the exception is Kingmaker where it can easil go to decades. (the humans in my party advanced to the next age category)
*that is 5 hours of actual game and not time for BS, eating etc.
the level that each AP i own tops out at (in that what level you are when facing the BBEG)
Rise of the Runelords - 18th
Council of Thieves- 13th
Kingmaker- 17th
Serpent's Skull- 17th
Carrion Crown- 15th
Jade Regent- 16th
Skull & Shackles- 14th
Shattered Star- 17th
Reign of Winter- 17th
Wrath of the Righteous- 20th level/10 mythic tiers
Mummy's Mask- 17th
i didn't add tags because it takes forever and its not very spoiler-ish
so yes only Wrath goes up to 20, tho ALL contain suggestions and pothooks to keep things going beyond the written material
@captain yesterday
You are wrong on RotRL, you are level 17 when you face the BBEG.
yeah i realized that later on
Some of the non-Paizo APs take you from level 1 to 20, though I'm uncertain how much in-game time passes. And of course Shackled City, Age of Worms & Savage Tide go from level 1 to 20, but would need to be converted from 3.5 to Pathfinder.
50-60 sessions of 3 or so hours
The time in game passes really quick, so u get to uber levels in months, which I'm not a fan of. I would prefer it taking years for the AP to develop and playout it's story
The level caps have been spot on IME.