Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs. Calculate reading time and analyze text statistics with this free online word counter.
Paste or type any text and this tool counts words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading and speaking time as you go. Everything updates instantly in your browser — nothing is uploaded — so it is safe for drafts, client work, or anything confidential.
Writers use a counter to stay inside hard limits: a 160-character SMS, a 280-character post, a meta description under 155 characters, a title tag under 60, an essay word count, or a 500-word blog minimum. Seeing the live count next to the text means no surprises when you paste it into the destination.
Word and character counts are a proxy for length, effort, and cost. Translators and copywriters bill by the word, students are graded against a target, and SEO titles and descriptions are truncated at fixed widths. A reading-time estimate also sets reader expectations — the "5 min read" label on articles comes from exactly this calculation.
The text never leaves your device. The counts are computed locally with JavaScript, so you can analyze unpublished drafts, contracts, or personal notes without sending them to a server. For related text work, see the Lorem Ipsum generator and the diff checker.
A word counter analyzes text to provide statistics on word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count, and estimated reading time. While simple in concept, word counting is essential for content creation, academic writing, SEO optimization, and any context where text length matters.
Content platforms, academic institutions, and search engines all impose or recommend specific word counts. Blog posts targeting SEO typically need 1,500-2,500 words for competitive keywords. Academic abstracts are limited to 150-300 words. Social media posts have strict character limits. A word counter provides instant feedback on whether content meets these requirements.
Word counting involves several text analysis techniques:
Word detection: Words are identified by splitting text on whitespace and punctuation boundaries. Hyphenated words (e.g., "well-known") may be counted as one or two words depending on the convention. Contractions ("don't") are typically counted as one word.
Character counting: Characters are counted with and without spaces. Unicode characters (emoji, accented letters, CJK characters) each count as one character regardless of their byte length.
Readability metrics: Advanced word counters calculate reading time based on the average adult reading speed of 200-250 words per minute. Speaking time for presentations uses approximately 130-150 words per minute.
| Metric | Calculation | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|
| Words | Split by whitespace | Content requirements, SEO |
| Characters (with spaces) | All characters | SMS, social media limits |
| Characters (no spaces) | Letters, digits, punctuation | Academic citations |
| Sentences | Split by . ! ? | Readability analysis |
| Paragraphs | Split by line breaks | Document structure |
| Reading time | Words / 225 wpm | Blog post estimates |
| Speaking time | Words / 140 wpm | Presentation planning |
This tool provides comprehensive text statistics including word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentence count, paragraph count, line count, average word and sentence length, longest word, estimated reading time, speaking time, and page count based on 250 words per page.
Reading time is calculated based on an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, which is typical for adult readers. Speaking time uses 140 words per minute, representing a comfortable speaking pace for presentations or speeches. These estimates help you plan content length for different purposes.
The tool calculates six readability formulas: Flesch Reading Ease (0-100 scale where higher is easier), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, SMOG Index, Coleman-Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index (ARI). These scores indicate the education level needed to understand your text.
The tool identifies your most frequently used words after filtering out common stop words like the, and, is, and to. It displays the top 15 keywords with their occurrence count and density percentage. For SEO purposes, aim for a primary keyword density between 1% and 2% to avoid keyword stuffing penalties.
Yes, the Social tab shows character limits and optimal lengths for Twitter (280 characters), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and SEO meta titles and descriptions. A progress bar shows how close you are to each platform limit and changes color as you approach or exceed it.
Yes, your text is automatically saved to your browser local storage, so you will not lose your work if you accidentally close the tab or refresh the page. All text processing happens entirely in your browser and your content is never sent to any server, ensuring complete privacy.
You can set word count goals (250, 500, 1000, or 2000 words) or time-based goals (15, 30, 60, or 120 minutes) to track your writing progress. The tool also monitors your active writing time and calculates your words-per-minute typing speed to help you understand your productivity patterns.