Word Counter
Word Counter. Free, no signup, no watermark. Runs in your browser — your file never leaves your device.
How to word counter
- Paste or type your text — Drop your text into the box above. There is no length limit — the counter handles a full manuscript as comfortably as a tweet.
- Read the counts — Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, lines and reading time all update as you type.
- Edit in place — Trim or expand the text directly in the box and watch the figures move. Nothing is saved, and nothing is sent anywhere.
What this tool does
To count the words in a piece of text, paste it into the box above. The word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count and estimated reading time all update as you type, with no button to press. Counting happens in your browser, so the text is never sent anywhere and nothing is stored.
What this tool does
Word counters sound trivial until you need one that agrees with whatever is checking your work. This tool splits text on runs of whitespace, which is the same rule Microsoft Word and Google Docs apply. A hyphenated compound such as "well-known" counts as one word; "well known" counts as two. Numbers count as words. A line of punctuation on its own does not.
Sentence counting is harder than it looks, because a full stop does not reliably mark a sentence end — "Dr. Smith" and "3.5%" both contain one without finishing anything. The counter treats a terminator followed by whitespace or the end of the text as a boundary, which handles ordinary prose well. Expect some drift on text dense with abbreviations or decimal figures.
Reading time
The reading time estimate assumes 225 words per minute, which is a reasonable average for an adult reading general-interest prose on screen. Technical or unfamiliar material runs slower, often closer to 150 words per minute; skimming familiar material runs much faster. Treat the figure as a rough guide for pacing, not a measurement.
Where character limits matter
Character counts matter more than word counts in several common places. Meta descriptions are truncated by search engines at roughly 155 to 160 characters. Page titles are cut at around 60. University admissions systems and job application forms frequently impose hard character limits that include spaces, which is why this tool reports both totals — with spaces and without — rather than picking one.
Common targets worth knowing
A UCAS personal statement allows 4,000 characters or 47 lines, whichever comes first — the line limit catches people who have counted only characters. A CV is conventionally 400 to 800 words per page at readable type sizes. Blog posts that rank well for competitive terms tend to run past 1,500 words, though length is a symptom of thorough coverage rather than a cause of ranking.
For spoken delivery, count on roughly 130 words per minute at a measured pace. A five-minute conference talk is therefore about 650 words, and a best man's speech of 1,000 words will run close to eight minutes — appreciably longer than most people expect when they draft it.