Word Counter
Paste or type your text and every count updates instantly as you write.
Processed on your device — nothing is sent anywhere.
How it works
- Paste or type your text into the large box.
- Watch the tiles update live with words, characters, sentences and paragraphs.
- Check the estimated reading and speaking times before you publish or present.
Frequently asked questions
- How are words and sentences counted?
- Words are counted as sequences of letters, numbers or symbols separated by spaces or line breaks, which matches how most word processors count. Sentences are detected by terminal punctuation such as periods, question marks and exclamation marks, so abbreviations with internal dots may occasionally shift the count by one.
- How are reading and speaking times estimated?
- Reading time assumes an average silent reading speed of 200 words per minute, and speaking time assumes a typical presentation pace of 130 words per minute. Both are rounded estimates — actual times vary with the complexity of the text and the reader or speaker.
- Is my text uploaded anywhere?
- No. All counting happens locally in your browser and nothing is transmitted or stored on any server. You can load the page, disconnect from the internet and the counter keeps working exactly the same.
- Do character counts include spaces?
- Both figures are shown: characters including spaces and characters excluding them. Platform limits almost always count spaces — Twitter’s 280 characters, meta descriptions around 160, SMS at 160 — so the including-spaces number is usually the one to watch. The excluding-spaces count is common in translation and some publishing contexts where work is priced per character.
- Why does my word count differ slightly from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
- Each application makes its own choices about edge cases: hyphenated compounds, em dashes without spaces, slashes, and numbers with units can each be treated as one word or two. The differences are typically a fraction of a percent. For essays and articles the counts agree closely; for a strict legal or academic limit, check with the tool your reviewer will use.
About this tool
This word counter tracks every statistic about your text as you write it. Paste a draft or type directly into the box, and tiles above it update live with words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs, alongside estimated reading and speaking times. There is no button to press and no page reload — every keystroke recalculates instantly.
Counting happens entirely in your browser with a few lines of JavaScript; the text is never transmitted, stored or seen by any server. That makes the tool safe for unpublished manuscripts, confidential reports, cover letters and legal drafts. It also means it keeps working offline once loaded. The counting rules mirror mainstream word processors: whitespace separates words, terminal punctuation ends sentences, and blank lines split paragraphs, so the numbers line up closely with what editors and teachers will see.
Word counts govern more writing than most people notice. Students verify essay limits, freelancers confirm commissioned article lengths, and applicants squeeze personal statements under strict caps. Marketers watch characters instead: title tags near 60, meta descriptions near 160, and social posts with hard platform limits. The reading time figure — based on 200 words per minute — helps bloggers gauge whether a post respects a reader’s attention, while the 130-words-per-minute speaking estimate tells presenters and wedding speakers whether a script fits its slot before the first rehearsal.
A tip for editing sessions: watch the ratio between the counts, not just the totals. Average sentence length — words divided by sentences — is a quick readability signal; drafts that creep past 25 words per sentence usually benefit from splitting. If you are cutting to meet a limit, work paragraph by paragraph and let the live count show the effect of each cut immediately, which is considerably faster than re-checking a total after every pass.