Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs in text as you type.
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded.
How this works
Words are counted as runs of characters separated by whitespace, which matches how word processors and most editors count. Characters are counted twice — with and without spaces — because different platforms measure differently. Sentences are detected by terminal punctuation followed by a break, and paragraphs by blank lines. Reading time uses 238 words per minute, the figure from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of adult silent reading rates.
Assumptions
- Hyphenated words count as one word; em-dashed constructions count as two.
- Numbers and symbols separated by spaces count as words.
- Sentence detection is heuristic — abbreviations like 'e.g.' can inflate the count slightly.
- Reading time assumes silent reading of ordinary prose, not technical or reference material.
Worked example
A standard 500-word blog introduction.
- Words
- 500
- Reading speed
- 238 wpm
- Result
- About 2 minutes 6 seconds to read
500 ÷ 238 = 2.10 minutes. Technical documentation or anything with code samples will take considerably longer than this estimate, since the figure is based on continuous prose.
How to read the result
Check the character count that matches your target platform, since limits are almost always counted in characters rather than words, and platforms disagree on whether spaces and URLs count. If you are writing against a word limit set by an institution, confirm whether footnotes, headings and references are included — this tool counts everything in the box.
Limitations
- Counts may differ by a small margin from Microsoft Word or Google Docs, which apply their own rules to hyphens and symbols.
- Languages without whitespace word boundaries, such as Chinese and Japanese, will not count meaningfully by word.
- Reading time is an average across adult readers; individual speed varies widely.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does my count differ slightly from Microsoft Word?
- Word processors each apply their own rules for hyphens, em-dashes and numbers when deciding what counts as a word — this tool's rules are described above, and small differences of a few words are normal between any two counters on the same text.
- Does this count spaces as characters?
- Both figures are shown separately — "Characters" includes spaces, "Characters (no spaces)" doesn't — because platforms disagree on which one their limit applies to.
- Is my text uploaded anywhere?
- No. Counting happens as you type using JavaScript running in your browser — nothing you write is sent to a server, which matters if you're counting something confidential before it's finished.