Word counter

Words, characters, sentences and reading time, live. Free, no upload. 1 GB max · Up to 1 GB · Processed locally, never sent to a server.

A text is rarely measured out of curiosity. It gets measured because a brief imposes three hundred words, because an abstract has to fit under a two hundred and fifty word cap, because a form field stops accepting characters at some point, because an article is supposed to be readable in three minutes. This page shows six measurements that recalculate on every keystroke, with no button to press: words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and reading time.

The gap between any two counters always comes from the definition each one uses. Here, a word is an unbroken run of letters, digits, straight or curly apostrophes and hyphens. “state-of-the-art” is therefore one word and “don’t” is one word, while “3,500” is two, because the thousands comma breaks the run, and a lone “%” is none at all. Every measurement is spelled out further down, one box at a time, so you know what you are reading.

The calculation is a handful of regular expressions running inside the tab. Nothing is transmitted while you type, and this counter writes no line into the site’s local history, unlike the other four tools in this section. A text of several tens of thousands of words stays responsive, with one caveat: the whole input is re-analysed from scratch every time you add a character.

How to use it

  1. Paste or type your text The box accepts a paste from a word processor, a PDF or an email; formatting is dropped on the way in and only the plain text is analysed.
  2. Read the six result boxes Words, Characters, Without spaces, Sentences, Paragraphs and Reading time sit under the input and update with no validation step.
  3. Separate your paragraphs with a blank line The paragraph split happens on empty lines: a single line break does not open a new block in the count.
  4. Trim the text in the box itself The text stays editable while you watch the counters: cut an aside and the six figures follow, which is how you land on a limit to the exact word.
  5. Pick the measurement that concerns you A meta description is judged in characters, an assignment in words, a text meant to be read aloud on the duration it announces.

What each box counts exactly

Words: any run of letters, digits, apostrophes and hyphens. “half-hearted”, “e-mail” and “2026” each count as one; an isolated symbol such as “%” counts as none, and “$50” counts as one, since the currency sign sits outside the run. Characters: the raw length of the box, spaces, punctuation and line breaks included, with an emoji weighing two units rather than one. Without spaces: the same length once every blank has been removed, tabs and line breaks included.

Sentences: every group of strong punctuation followed by a blank or by the end of the text, a non-empty text with no final punctuation counting as one sentence. The rule is mechanical. In “Approved on May 12, 2026. Dr. Ellis signed it… And the annex?” the counter announces four sentences where a reader sees three, the abbreviation passing for an ending. A decimal point is safe, because a digit follows it rather than a blank, but that same point does split “3.5” into two words. Paragraphs: the number of blocks separated by at least one empty line.

Reading time and the basis it uses

The time shown is the word count divided by two hundred: the basis is silent reading at 200 words per minute, a conservative figure for ordinary prose. Under the minute, the display switches to seconds rounded up, so forty words give “12 s” and 199 words give “60 s” rather than one minute. Above it, rounding goes to the whole minute, so 201 words already show “2 min”. The estimate does not hold for a talk, since reading aloud is markedly slower, and it ignores density: a legal text, or one packed with figures, reads more slowly than a story of the same length.

The length limits you actually run into

Course briefs state their limit sometimes in words, sometimes in characters, often with a stated tolerance of ten per cent: check which unit is authoritative before you submit. Publishers and translation agencies still price part of their work per character including spaces, which points at the Characters box and not at Without spaces.

On screens, a text message fits in 160 characters in the reduced alphabet carriers use, but a single character outside that alphabet — a curly apostrophe pasted from a word processor, an em dash, an emoji — switches the message to a wider encoding where the limit drops to 70. A post on X is capped at 280 characters. For a meta description nothing is imposed technically: usage settles on 155 to 160 characters, beyond which the snippet shown in search results is generally truncated.

When this counter is not the reference

If your work is judged on the figure produced by one particular program, that program is the authority: a word processor applies its own conventions for numbers, compound words and notes, and its total can drift from ours. Use this page to write and to close in on the target, then check inside the tool you submit through. The counter takes plain text only, never sees footnotes or headers, and measures neither readability nor keyword density.

Frequently asked questions

How many words is “state-of-the-art”?

One. Hyphens and apostrophes are part of the word, which is why “don’t” also counts as one. “3,500” on the other hand counts as two, since the thousands comma cuts the run in half, and “3.5” counts as two for the same reason.

Why is the sentence count higher than expected?

Because any strong punctuation followed by a blank is treated as the end of a sentence. Abbreviations such as “Dr.”, “etc.” or “U.S.” and strings of dots inflate the total. The gap stays small on a long text, but it is very visible on a page full of abbreviations.

Does a line break create a paragraph?

No, the split happens on empty lines. A text at single line breaks, a poem or a list, counts as one paragraph for as long as no blank line separates its parts.

What speed is the reading time based on?

On 200 words per minute, rounded up to the whole minute. Below a minute the display switches to seconds, also rounded up: forty words give “12 s”, and 199 words give “60 s”.

Why does my word processor find a different total?

Every program has its own definition of a word. Divergences show up mainly on numbers, compound words and web addresses, and on notes, headers and footers, which this counter never sees because it only receives the text you paste into it.

Does the text stay anywhere after I close the tab?

No. It lives in the input box for the length of the session, is sent nowhere and leaves no entry in the local history. Reload the page and the box is empty.

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