Word Counter
This free word counter tracks words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, and paragraphs as you type, along with an estimated reading and speaking time. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
How to Use It
- Paste or type your text into the box.
- Every count updates instantly as you type.
- Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading/speaking time all appear at once.
How It Works
Word count splits your text on whitespace; character counts are a raw length, with a second count that strips out whitespace but keeps every other character, including punctuation. Sentence count splits on periods, exclamation points, and question marks, and paragraph count splits on blank lines rather than every single line break, matching how paragraphs are conventionally separated in plain text.
Reading time (200 words/minute) and speaking time (130 words/minute) are both based on commonly-cited average paces, scaled to your word count: useful for gauging how long an article takes to read or a speech takes to deliver.
The sentence-count limitation is easiest to see with a real example. The text "Call me Ishmael. Mr. Smith paid $3.14 for coffee." is genuinely two sentences, but this counter (and any counter using the same period/exclamation/question-mark splitting approach) reports four, because it splits on every period it finds, including the ones in "Mr." and "3.14" that don't actually end a sentence. There's no reliable way to tell those apart without real natural language parsing, so the sentence count here is always a close estimate for ordinary prose, not an exact count for text full of abbreviations or decimals.
Paragraph counting works differently from the other counts: it splits on blank lines (one or more), not on every line break, which matches how paragraphs are conventionally written in plain text. A single paragraph that happens to wrap across several visual lines in the text box still counts as one paragraph, as long as there's no blank line inside it.
Everything runs client-side in your browser. No text you type is sent anywhere or stored.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the sentence count sometimes off?
It counts sentences by looking for periods, exclamation points, and question marks. It doesn't know the difference between a period ending a sentence and one used in an abbreviation ("Mr.", "e.g.") or a decimal number ("3.14"), so those will inflate the count slightly. For exact prose, it's a close estimate, not a guarantee.
How are reading time and speaking time calculated?
Reading time assumes 200 words per minute, and speaking time assumes 130 words per minute, both commonly-cited averages for silent reading and spoken delivery. Your own pace will vary, so treat these as a reasonable estimate for planning a talk or gauging how long an article takes to read, not an exact prediction.
Does the character count without spaces still count punctuation?
Yes, only whitespace (spaces, tabs, line breaks) is removed for that count. Punctuation, numbers, and every other visible character are still counted.
Why does my word count differ slightly from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Every word processor uses its own tokenization rules for edge cases like hyphenated words, em dashes, and numbers with commas, so the same text can come out a word or two different between tools. This counter splits on whitespace, so a hyphenated word like "well-known" (no space inside it) counts as one word, the same way most word processors treat it, but exact behavior for less common punctuation can still vary tool to tool.
Is there a recommended word count for things like essays or blog posts?
It depends entirely on the assignment or platform, and this tool doesn't enforce any limit either way. Common reference points: a five-paragraph school essay often lands around 500-800 words, SEO-focused blog posts frequently target 1,000+ words for depth, a resume summary is usually kept under 100 words, and a meta description (relevant if you're writing copy for a webpage) is conventionally kept to about 150-160 characters so search engines don't truncate it.
Can I use this to check a character limit like a social media post?
Yes, the "characters with spaces" count is the one that matches how most platforms measure post length, since they count every character you actually typed. It's a useful way to check a draft against a fixed limit (for example, a platform capping standard posts at 280 characters) before you paste it in.