About the Word Counter
Paste or type any text and the Word Counter shows how many words, characters, sentences and paragraphs it has. The numbers change as you type, so you always know where you stand.
It is built for anyone who writes to a limit. Students checking an essay against a 1,500-word cap. Copywriters trimming a product description. Speakers working out whether a script fits a five-minute slot. Translators and editors who quote by the word.
Besides the basic counts, you get reading and speaking time, the number of unique words, average word and sentence length, and a short list of the words you repeat most. Counting happens in your browser, so your text never leaves your device.
How to use it
- Add your textType in the box, paste text, or drop a .txt, .md or .csv file onto it. You can also use Open file.
- Read the main countsWords, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and reading time sit above the box and update on every keystroke.
- Check the detailsBelow the box you will find speaking time, unique words, average word and sentence length, the longest word and the number of lines.
- Look at your top keywordsThe right-hand list shows up to ten words you used more than once, leaving out short filler words like "the" and "and".
- Copy the statsCopy stats puts a plain-text summary on your clipboard, ready to paste into an email, a brief or a submission form.
Key features
Live counts
Every number updates as you type or paste. Very long texts (over 100,000 characters) update a moment after you stop typing.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time uses 238 words per minute and speaking time uses 150, both common averages for adults.
Characters as you see them
An emoji, a flag or an accented letter counts as one character, even when it is stored as several code points.
Top keywords
See which words you lean on. Filler words, numbers and words shorter than three letters are left out.
Works beyond English
Accented letters, Cyrillic and Greek count normally. Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai, which do not use spaces, are split into words by your browser.
Private by design
There is no upload and no account. Close the tab and the text is gone.
Examples
A short paragraph
Paste this sentence pair:
Good writing is easy to read. Short sentences help, and so do plain words.You get 14 words, 74 characters, 61 characters without spaces, 2 sentences and 1 paragraph. Commas and periods count as characters, but not as words.
Planning a talk
Speaking time is the number to watch when you write a script. At 150 words per minute:
| Script length | Speaking time | Reading time |
|---|---|---|
| 250 words | 1 min 40 sec | 1 min 3 sec |
| 750 words | 5 min | 3 min 9 sec |
| 1,500 words | 10 min | 6 min 18 sec |
So a five-minute slot holds about 750 words. Leave some room if you plan to pause for slides or questions.
How tricky words are counted
| You type | Words | Why |
|---|---|---|
don't | 1 | Contractions stay together. |
well-known | 1 | A hyphen joins the parts. |
| well—known | 2 | A long dash (—) separates words. |
3.5 | 2 | The dot splits the number. |
example.com | 2 | Same for web addresses. |
我喜欢学习中文 | 4 | Split into words by meaning, not spaces. |
Tips
- Separate paragraphs with an empty line. The paragraph count only starts a new paragraph after a blank line, the way most editors and websites treat text.
- Rehearse with the speaking time, then read the script aloud once with a timer. Your own pace may be faster or slower than 150 words per minute.
- Scan the top keywords before you submit. If one word shows up five or six times in a short piece, a synonym or a rewrite usually reads better.
- Text copied from a PDF often has a line break at the end of every line. Run it through Remove Line Breaks first and the sentence and paragraph counts become accurate.
- When a limit is set in characters rather than words, such as a meta description or a text message, the Character Counter shows how much room you have left.
Common mistakes and limits
- Expecting single line breaks to start a paragraphLines separated by one Enter press count as one paragraph. Add an empty line between paragraphs if that number matters to you.
- Comparing counts with a word processorPrograms that split only at spaces count 3.5, $1,500 or example.com as one word; this tool counts each as two. On a long document that can add a handful of words.
- Trusting the sentence count with abbreviationsA period after an abbreviation can look like the end of a sentence, so "Dr. Smith arrived." may count as two sentences.
- Treating reading time as exactIt is an average for everyday prose. Technical writing, legal text and anything full of numbers takes longer to read.
- Pasting a whole document with its extrasHeaders, footers, footnotes and captions count if you paste them. Copy only the part your limit applies to.
