Word Counter
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What this tool counts
Type or paste any text into the box above and it counts words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs as you go — no need to press a button. It also estimates how long the text takes to read out loud, based on an average reading speed of 200 words a minute.
Who this is for
- Students and writers checking an essay or article against a word count limit.
- Social media users keeping a post inside a platform's character limit.
- SEO writers aiming for a target word count on a blog post or page.
- Anyone editing a speech or video script who wants to know how long it will take to read aloud.
How words and sentences are counted
Words are counted by splitting the text wherever there's a space or line break, so "well-known" counts as one word and "New York" counts as two. Sentences are counted by looking for periods, question marks, and exclamation points, so a piece of text with no punctuation at the end is still counted as one sentence. Paragraphs are counted by looking for blank lines between blocks of text.
- Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
- No. Everything happens right in your browser — nothing is uploaded, stored, or seen by anyone else.
- Why does my character count include spaces?
- The "characters" figure counts every character including spaces, which matches how most platforms and style guides measure length. The "no spaces" figure next to it gives you the count without them.
- Why is my reading time different from what I expected?
- Reading time is an estimate based on average reading speed. Dense or technical text usually takes longer to read than the estimate suggests, and simple, conversational text can be quicker.