Word Counter
Paste or type your text and get live counts — words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and reading time. Ideal for essays, meta descriptions, and social media limits.
Everything stays in your browser — your text is never uploaded.
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Words
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Characters
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Chars (no spaces)
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Sentences
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Paragraphs
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Reading time
How to use the word counter
- Type or paste your text into the box above. Counts update live as you type.
- Read the stats. Words and characters are the headline numbers; sentences and paragraphs help you judge structure; reading time estimates how long an average reader needs.
- Hit your target. Writing a 1,500-word essay, a 155-character meta description, or a 280-character post? Watch the numbers and trim or expand accordingly.
How the counts work
Words are sequences separated by whitespace. Characters include every letter, digit, punctuation mark, and space; characters (no spaces) strips all whitespace first — useful when a platform counts only visible characters. Sentences split on ., !, ?, and …. Paragraphs split on blank lines. Reading time assumes 200 words per minute, the widely used average for adult readers.
Word counter FAQ
Any run of characters separated by spaces, tabs, or line breaks. Hyphenated compounds like “well-known” count as one word, and numbers like “2026” count as one word too — matching how most editors and word processors behave.
Different platforms measure differently. SMS segments, some meta fields, and code golf count every character including spaces; other limits (like certain bio fields) ignore whitespace. Showing both means you never have to guess which one a limit means — our character-count-for-SEO guide has platform-by-platform limits.
No. Counting happens entirely in your browser with JavaScript. Your drafts, essays, and manuscripts never leave your device.
It assumes 200 words per minute, a standard average for adult silent reading. Dense or technical text reads slower; light fiction reads faster. Treat it as a ballpark, not a stopwatch.