Word & Character Counter
Paste or type your text. Words, characters, sentences and reading time update instantly — nothing is uploaded.
Most used words
How to use it
- Type your text into the box, or paste it in with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac).
- The counts on the right update on every keystroke — there is no button to press.
- Use Copy text to take your text back out, or Clear to start again.
The limits people are usually counting against
Almost nobody counts words for fun. They are checking against a limit somebody else set, and those limits are worth knowing:
- Google search result title — about 60 characters before it is cut off with an ellipsis.
- Meta description — 150 to 160 characters.
- A single SMS — 160 characters, after which it is split and charged as two.
- X, formerly Twitter — 280 characters.
- LinkedIn headline — 220 characters.
- School and college essays — almost always set in words, and almost always with a ten percent tolerance either way. Check with whoever set it.
Why two tools give two different counts
Word counts disagree more often than you would expect, and the disagreement is real rather than a bug. The question is what counts as one word.
This tool splits on whitespace, which is the common convention: anything
with a space around it is one word. So state-of-the-art is
one word here, and state of the art is four. An em dash with
spaces around it counts as a word in some tools and not in others. Numbers
and dates count as words. If your count has to match a specific piece of
software exactly, check a short sample in both before you trust either.
Characters are less ambiguous, which is why every limit that really matters — SMS, search snippets, form fields — is written in characters rather than words.
Frequently asked questions
Does this count characters with or without spaces?
Both. Characters includes every space and line break, which is what Twitter, SMS and most form limits count. No spaces is what some academic word limits use.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. The counting happens in JavaScript inside your own browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is saved — close the tab and the text is gone.
How is reading time worked out?
Words divided by 225, which is the average adult silent reading speed. Read-aloud speed is closer to 150 words a minute, so speeches take about 50% longer.
Why is my sentence count different from Word?
This tool treats every full stop, question mark, exclamation mark and line break as a sentence end. Abbreviations like “Dr.” will therefore add one.