Word Counter
Count words, characters and paragraphs.
Count words, characters and sentences as you type
Paste or type text into the box and six figures update with every keystroke: words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and an estimated reading time. Use it to check an essay against a word limit or a bio against a character cap.
The counting is done by the page itself. Your draft isn’t sent anywhere, so cover letters, coursework and private notes stay on your device.
How to check the length of your text
- Type in the box, or paste text copied from Word, Google Docs, an email or a web page.
- Read the counts next to the box (below it on a phone). They change as you edit.
- Cut or add text right there until it fits your limit.
- Click Copy to put the edited text back on your clipboard, or Clear to empty the box and start again.
How each number is worked out
- Words: anything separated by spaces or line breaks. A hyphenated term like “well-known” counts once, and so does a number or a web address.
- Characters: every character, including spaces and line breaks. Some emoji count as two characters, as they do in most character limits online.
- Characters (no spaces): the same total with spaces, tabs and line breaks left out.
- Sentences: stretches of text ending in a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. A last line without punctuation counts as one too.
- Paragraphs: every line break starts a new paragraph, so a list or an address counts one per line. Blank lines are ignored.
- Reading time: words divided by 200, rounded to the nearest minute, and never less than 1 min once there’s any text.
Situations where a live count helps
- Essays and assignments: stay inside the range your teacher set while you edit, rather than finding out at the end. More study helpers are collected in online tools for students.
- Character-limited fields: application forms, profile bios and meta descriptions often cap characters rather than words.
- Writing for the web: check an article’s length, then see which words you lean on with the Keyword Density Checker.
- Talks and scripts: the reading time gives a first idea of length, though reading aloud is usually slower than reading silently.
Getting counts you can rely on
- Abbreviations and decimals such as “e.g.” or “3.5” contain full stops, so they push the sentence count up. Treat that figure as an estimate for technical text.
- A dash typed with spaces on both sides (“this — that”) counts as a word. Tidy stray symbols if you’re right on a strict limit.
- Text pasted from a PDF often has a line break at the end of every line, which inflates the paragraph count. Join the lines first if you need that number.
- Before you submit, run the text through the Grammar Checker, then paste the corrected version back here to make sure it still fits.
Word Counter: common questions
Does the character count include spaces?
The Characters figure does, along with line breaks. Characters (no spaces) leaves them out. If a form doesn’t say which it means, assume spaces count.
Why is my count different from Word or Google Docs?
Each program has its own idea of what a word is. Here, anything between spaces counts, so a lone dash or ampersand adds one, while “e-mail” or “2024-25” counts once. Expect small differences on text with lots of symbols.
How is the reading time calculated?
It assumes 200 words per minute and rounds to the nearest whole minute, so anything under 300 words shows 1 min and 300 words shows 2 min.
Is the text I paste saved anywhere?
No. The counts are calculated in your browser and nothing is stored by the site, so keep your own copy of anything you’ve edited here.