Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs, plus estimated reading time.
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Words
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Characters
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Characters (no spaces)
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Sentences
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Paragraphs
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Reading time
About this tool
Whether you're hitting a word count minimum for an assignment or a character limit for a form field, eyeballing it is unreliable. This tool counts words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, and paragraphs as you type, and estimates reading time based on an average adult reading speed of 200 words per minute.
Word counts show up in more places than you might expect: college application essays with strict limits, freelance writing priced per word, journal abstracts, grant proposals, and meta descriptions or social posts with character caps. Different tools can report slightly different numbers for the same text, because there's no single universal rule for what counts as a word. This counter treats any run of non-space characters as one word, which matches how most word processors count.
A few practical tips: character limits on social platforms and form fields usually include spaces, so use the "with spaces" figure for those. Hyphenated words like "well-known" count as one word here, as they do in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. And the reading-time estimate is meant for general prose; dense technical material takes longer, while skimmable content with headings and lists usually reads faster.
Frequently asked questions
- How is reading time calculated?
- It divides the word count by 200 words per minute, a commonly cited average adult silent-reading speed, and rounds up to the nearest minute.
- How does it count sentences?
- It counts runs of text ending in a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Abbreviations with periods can occasionally throw off the count, a limitation of any simple sentence counter.
- Is my text sent anywhere?
- No, all counting happens locally in your browser as you type. Nothing is sent to a server.
- Why does another tool give me a different word count?
- Tools disagree on edge cases: whether hyphenated or slash-joined words count as one or two, whether numbers and standalone symbols count, and how they handle URLs or email addresses. The differences are usually small, but for a strict limit, check which tool the person setting the limit uses.
- How many words is a page?
- Roughly 500 words for a single-spaced page and about 250 for double-spaced, using a standard 12-point font and one-inch margins. It varies with font, spacing, and how many headings or short paragraphs the text has.