Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with an estimated reading time.
Processed on your device — no upload
How to use it
- Paste or type your text into the box.
- The counts update on every keystroke.
- Check the figure the limit you are working to actually uses.
How it works
Words are counted by splitting on runs of whitespace, which is the same rule almost every word processor applies. It means a hyphenated compound like state-of-the-art counts as one word, and an em dash between two words with spaces around it counts as a word of its own.
Two character counts are shown, and the difference matters. Social platforms and SMS count every character including spaces. Some academic and legal limits count only non-space characters. Quoting the wrong one is how a submission gets rejected for being over a limit it was actually under.
Sentences are detected by full stops, question marks and exclamation marks followed by whitespace. This is a heuristic, not a parser: Dr. Smith arrived. counts as two sentences, and there is no reliable way for any tool to know otherwise without understanding the text.
Reading time uses 238 words per minute, the figure most reading research converges on for adult silent reading of ordinary prose. Speaking time uses 130 wpm, a comfortable presentation pace. Both are estimates for planning, not measurements.
A worked example
You are writing a 500-word blog introduction and a 160-character meta description for the same article.
Paste the introduction. The counter reads 512 words — close enough, and the reading time shows 2m 9s, which is what you would put in the “2 min read” badge.
Now paste the meta description. It reads 168 characters including spaces, over the limit. The non-space count reads 143, which is under — but Google truncates on rendered width and counts spaces, so the number that matters here is 168. Trim eight characters.
One more use worth knowing. Paste a transcript of a talk and switch your attention tospeaking time: 1,400 words comes out at roughly 10m 46s. For a ten-minute slot that is about right; at 238 wpm reading speed the same text would suggest 5m 53s and you would badly overrun.
If the text arrived from a PDF and every line broke early, removing the line breaks first will not change the word count — but it will make the paragraph count meaningful.
Questions
Does it count letters as well as words?
Yes, with and without spaces, plus sentences, paragraphs and reading time. An essay with a strict limit usually needs the character count rather than the word count.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. The counting happens in your browser as you type. This site has no backend, so nothing you paste is transmitted — which matters if you are counting something confidential.
Which character count should I use?
For social media, SMS and meta descriptions, use characters including spaces. Some academic and legal limits specify characters excluding spaces. If the limit does not say, assume it includes spaces.
Why does my word processor show a different number?
Different tools handle hyphenated compounds, numbers and footnotes differently, and Word counts text in headers, footnotes and text boxes that you may not have pasted. Differences of a percent or two are normal.
How is reading time calculated?
Words divided by 238 per minute, the figure most reading research supports for adult silent reading. Technical material reads slower and light prose faster, so treat it as a planning estimate.
Why is the sentence count wrong?
Sentence detection looks for full stops, question marks and exclamation marks. Abbreviations like "Dr." and "e.g." are counted as sentence ends because no rule-based tool can tell the difference reliably.
What counts as a paragraph?
A block of text separated by a blank line. Text with single line breaks between every line — typically pasted from a PDF — will count as one paragraph.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the page has loaded there is nothing else to fetch, so it keeps working in airplane mode.
Is there a length limit?
No fixed limit. The counting is fast enough that even a full novel updates without noticeable delay in a modern browser.