Word Counter & Character Counter — free online
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time as you type. Instant, free, and your text never leaves the browser tab.
About the Word counter tool
Word and character limits are everywhere once you start looking. University essays specify a count and penalise overruns. Job applications cap the personal statement. Meta descriptions get truncated by Google somewhere around 160 characters. Bios, abstracts, grant applications, product listings and cover letters all come with a number attached, and the difference between meeting it and missing it is often the difference between being read and being rejected.
Counting is less obvious than it sounds, which is why two tools can disagree about the same text. Words are counted here as runs of characters separated by whitespace, which is the same approach word processors take — so a hyphenated compound counts as one and an em dash surrounded by spaces counts as none. Sentences are detected from terminating punctuation, which handles ordinary prose well and abbreviations imperfectly, since nothing can reliably tell a full stop after "Dr" from the end of a thought.
The characters-with-spaces and characters-without-spaces figures both matter because different systems mean different things by a character limit. Social platforms and SMS count everything including spaces. Some academic submission systems exclude them. Database fields and form validators almost always include them. When a limit is tight, check which definition applies before trimming, because on a long passage the gap between the two numbers is substantial.
Reading time is an estimate built on roughly 200 to 250 words per minute, which is the usual figure for an adult reading ordinary prose. Treat it as a rough guide for planning rather than a measurement: dense technical material reads considerably slower, familiar and conversational writing considerably faster, and anyone skimming will beat it comfortably. It is most useful for pacing a talk or setting expectations at the top of an article.
How it works
Paste your text
Type or paste into the box. Nothing is stored, sent or logged — the text stays in the tab.
Read the counts
Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines and reading time all update as you type.
Edit until it fits
Trim or expand directly in the box and watch the numbers move. There is no button to press.
Frequently asked questions
- How are words counted exactly?
- A word is a run of characters bounded by whitespace, which matches how word processors count and is what almost every institution means by the term. A hyphenated compound such as "well-known" counts as one word. Numbers count as words. A standalone dash surrounded by spaces does not. This is why a count here will usually agree with Word to within a word or two.
- Why do characters with and without spaces both matter?
- Because systems disagree about which they mean. Social platforms, SMS gateways and most form validators count every character including spaces. Some academic and grant submission systems explicitly exclude them. On a 2,000-character passage the difference is around 300 characters, which is easily enough to fail a limit you thought you had met.
- How accurate is the sentence count?
- Reliable for ordinary prose, less so for text full of abbreviations, decimals or ellipses. Sentences are identified from terminating punctuation, and no simple rule can distinguish the full stop in "Dr. Smith" or "3.5" from the end of a sentence. If your text is heavy with those, treat the figure as approximate.
- What reading speed is the estimate based on?
- Around 200 to 250 words per minute, the standard figure for an adult reading general prose at a comfortable pace. Technical or unfamiliar material runs slower, light conversational writing faster, and skimming faster still. It is a planning aid — useful for timing a presentation or labelling an article — rather than a measurement of any particular reader.
- Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
- No. The counting happens in JavaScript in your browser tab as you type, and the text is never transmitted, never written to storage and never logged. Closing the tab discards it entirely. That matters if you are counting an unpublished manuscript, a confidential report or anything else you would not paste into an unknown website.
- Does it work for languages other than English?
- Whitespace-separated languages count correctly, so most European languages are fine. Languages written without spaces between words — Chinese, Japanese and Thai among them — cannot be word-counted this way, and the character counts are the meaningful figures for those. Vietnamese counts syllables as separate words, since that is how it is written.
- Can I count a document instead of pasted text?
- Paste the contents in rather than uploading a file. Selecting all in your word processor and pasting here takes a moment and keeps the document on your own machine. It also lets you count a portion — just the abstract, or one chapter — which is usually what a limit actually applies to.