Paste or type your text and this tool counts, as you write, the words, the characters with and without spaces, the sentences and the paragraphs, and estimates how long the text takes to read. There is nothing to install and no account to create, and the count is done in your browser, so the text is never uploaded.
It is meant for the everyday limits: an essay with a minimum number of words, a 500-word article, a cover letter that has to fit on one page, a caption with a character cap. The numbers update with every keystroke.
How this tool counts
The rules are simple and the same every time, so you can reproduce a result by hand if you need to:
| What | How it is counted |
|---|---|
| Words | Groups of characters separated by one or more spaces, tabs or line breaks. “well-known” and “don’t” count as one word each. |
| Characters (with spaces) | Every character in the box, including spaces and line breaks. |
| Characters (no spaces) | The same count without spaces, tabs or line breaks. |
| Sentences | Pieces of text ended by a period, question mark or exclamation mark. Repeated marks (“?!”, “...”) count once. |
| Paragraphs | Blocks of text separated by line breaks. Empty lines are ignored. |
| Reading time | Words divided by 200 words per minute, rounded up. A reasonable average for silent reading of ordinary prose. |
Useful reference lengths
As a rough guide, a single-spaced page of 12-point text holds about 500 words and a double-spaced page about 250. A 1,000-word article is a 5-minute read at the 200 words per minute used here, and a 2,000-word essay takes about 10.
Limits depend on who sets them, so check the exact rule you were given: some institutions count words in the references and others do not, and some social networks count characters in a different way than a plain count does.
Who uses it every day
- Students to check the length of essays, reports and assignments against the minimum or maximum they were given.
- Writers and bloggers to keep articles at the length they planned, or to hit a target word count for a post.
- Copywriters and marketers to fit ad copy, product descriptions and newsletters into a set number of words.
- Translators to estimate the size of a job, since many rates are charged per word.
Three steps
- 1Paste your text into the box, or type directly in it.
- 2Read the numbers in the cards below the box. They update on every change, so you can edit and watch the count.
- 3Copy or clear. Use “Copy text” to copy the text back to your clipboard, or “Clear” to start again.
Limitations
Every counting tool makes small choices, and they can differ by a few words from Word, Google Docs or a platform’s own counter. This tool counts a number, an acronym or a hyphenated word as one word. A sentence ending in an abbreviation (“etc.”) can add one extra sentence to the sentence count. Reading time is an estimate: technical text or text in a second language is read slower than 200 words per minute.
Frequently asked questions
How do I count words online?
Paste or type your text in the box above. The word count appears at once in the first card and updates as you edit. There is no button to press.
What is a word counter used for?
To check that a text meets a length requirement: school and university assignments, articles, applications, ads, subtitles or anything with a minimum or maximum number of words.
How many words are on a page?
About 500 words on a single-spaced page of 12-point text and about 250 on a double-spaced one. The real number depends on font, margins and line spacing.
How many words per minute do people read?
The usual estimate for silent reading of ordinary text is 200 to 250 words per minute. This tool uses 200 and rounds up, so the result is a slightly cautious estimate.
Are numbers and acronyms counted as words?
Yes. Any group of characters separated by spaces is a word, so “2026”, “NASA” and “e-mail” each count as one.
Why do I get more paragraphs than I expected?
Each line break starts a new paragraph, so text copied from a PDF or an email with hard line breaks at the end of every line reports many paragraphs. Clean the line breaks first if you need the real number.
Can I count only part of the text?
Paste only the part you want to count. The tool counts everything that is in the box.
Does it count characters with or without spaces?
Both. The two cards show the total with spaces and the total without them.
How are sentences counted?
By the final punctuation: periods, question marks and exclamation marks. A sentence ending in an abbreviation or a decimal number can be counted wrongly, so treat the figure as a good estimate.
Does it work for other languages?
Yes, for any language that separates words with spaces, including English, Spanish, Catalan, French or German. For languages written without spaces, such as Chinese or Japanese, the word count is not meaningful.