A fast, accurate word and character counter
This word counter shows exactly how long your writing is while you type. Paste an essay, a cover letter, a blog post, a tweet or a product description and you instantly see the number of words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines, plus estimated reading and speaking time.
Word limits are everywhere: college application essays, journal abstracts, meta descriptions, ad copy, social posts and school assignments. Counting by hand is slow and error-prone, and word processors are not always open when you need a quick answer. This counter runs in your browser, works on any phone or computer, and never uploads what you write.
How to use the Word Counter
- Type directly into the box, or paste text copied from Word, Google Docs, a PDF or a web page.
- Watch the counts update live — words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, lines and average word length.
- Check the reading and speaking time to see how long a speech, script or article will take.
- Review the top keywords list to spot words you repeat too often.
- Use “Copy text” to take the text back to your document, or “Clear” to start again.
Word Counter features
Live counting
Every number updates as you type, with no button to press and no page reload.
Characters with and without spaces
See both totals — useful for forms, SMS, translations and platforms that count differently.
Reading & speaking time
Estimates are based on an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute and a speaking pace of 150 words per minute.
Keyword density
The ten most frequent meaningful words, with how often each appears and its share of the total.
Works with any language
Unicode-aware counting handles accented letters, Cyrillic, Greek, Devanagari and other scripts.
Private and saved locally
Your draft can be kept in your own browser so it is still there if you close the tab — and you can switch that off.
How words and characters are counted
A word is any run of letters or numbers. Hyphenated words such as “well-known” and contractions such as “don’t” count as one word, which matches how Microsoft Word and Google Docs count. Punctuation, emoji and symbols on their own are not counted as words.
Characters include every letter, number, space, punctuation mark and line break. Characters without spaces removes spaces, tabs and line breaks. A sentence ends with a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis, and a paragraph is a block of text separated from the next by a blank line.
Common word count limits
Use these typical limits as a guide — always check the exact rules of the platform or institution you are writing for.
| Type of writing | Typical length |
|---|---|
| Tweet / X post | 280 characters |
| Meta description (SEO) | 150–160 characters |
| Common App college essay | 250–650 words |
| Cover letter | 250–400 words |
| Research abstract | 150–300 words |
| Blog post | 1,000–2,500 words |
| Short story | 1,000–7,500 words |
Tips for hitting a word limit
- Too long? Cut filler phrases such as “in order to”, “the fact that” and “it is important to note that”.
- Too short? Add a concrete example, a statistic or a short explanation of why your point matters.
- Watch the keyword list: if one word dominates, replace some uses with synonyms to make the writing read more naturally.
- Aim for an average sentence length of 15–20 words for clear, readable prose.
Word Counter FAQ
Is this word counter free?
Yes. It is completely free, needs no account and has no limit on how much text you can count.
Is my text stored or uploaded?
No. Counting happens in your browser. If “Keep my text on this device” is ticked, the draft is saved only in your browser’s local storage, and unticking it clears it.
Does it count words the same way as Microsoft Word?
Very closely. Hyphenated words and contractions count as one word, as in Word and Google Docs. Small differences can occur with unusual symbols, footnotes or text boxes, which are counted differently by each program.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time divides your word count by 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for adults. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a typical pace for presentations.
Can I count characters for Twitter or SMS?
Yes. The “Characters” total includes spaces and punctuation, which is how most social networks and text messages count. For a dedicated limit tracker, use the Character Counter.
Does it work for languages other than English?
Yes. The counter recognises letters from all Unicode scripts, so it works for Spanish, French, German, Hindi, Russian, Arabic and more. Languages written without spaces, such as Chinese and Japanese, are better measured by character count.