Paste or type your text and get an instant, live count of words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences and paragraphs, plus estimated reading and speaking time and your most frequent words. Perfect for essays with strict limits, meta descriptions, tweets, and blog posts targeting a specific length.
Why word count matters
Different platforms punish the wrong length differently: meta descriptions get truncated past ~160 characters, X posts cap at 280, college essays have hard limits, and blog posts compete best when they fully cover a topic — see our guide to ideal blog post length. This tool gives you every number you need in one glance.
Private by design
Your text never leaves your browser. Nothing is uploaded, logged or stored — you can safely count confidential documents.
What the counts are usually for
| Where | Typical target |
|---|---|
| University essay | Usually ±10% of the stated limit; check whether references count |
| Blog post that ranks | Long enough to answer fully — commonly 1,000–2,000 words |
| Meta description | ~155 characters before Google truncates it |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters, but only ~200 show before "see more" |
| Conference talk | ~130 words per minute when spoken aloud |
Why two tools give different counts
If this tool and Microsoft Word disagree, neither is broken — they are counting different things. Hyphenated words ("state-of-the-art") may count as one or four. Numbers, dates and standalone symbols are treated inconsistently. Text in footnotes, captions, tables and headers is included by some tools and not others.
If you are submitting against a hard limit, use the tool your marker or client will use, and leave a margin. A 2% disagreement on a 5,000-word essay is 100 words.
Reading and speaking time
Silent reading averages roughly 200–250 words per minute for adults on familiar material, and slows considerably for technical text. Speaking aloud is much slower — around 130 words per minute at a comfortable pace, less if you are pausing for a room. That is why a 10-minute talk needs roughly 1,300 words, not 2,500.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time uses an average adult silent-reading speed of about 220 words per minute; speaking time uses roughly 140 words per minute, typical for presentations.
Do spaces count as characters?
The tool shows both figures: characters including spaces (what most platform limits use) and characters excluding spaces (common in translation and typesetting work).
Is my text uploaded to a server?
No. Counting happens entirely in your browser with JavaScript. Your text is never transmitted or stored, so it’s safe for confidential content.
What counts as a word?
Any sequence of characters separated by spaces or line breaks. Hyphenated terms like "state-of-the-art" count as one word, matching how word processors count.