Word Counter & Character Counter
Type or paste your text to count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type. See the reading time, the most used words, how easy the text is to read, and whether it fits on X, in an SMS or in a Google title. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Reading time
- 0 s
- Speaking time
- 0 s
- Unique words
- 0
- Average word length
- –
- Average sentence
- –
- Longest sentence
- –
- Pages (12 pt)
- 0
- Size (UTF-8)
- 0 bytes
- Chinese / Japanese characters
- 0
Reading at 238 words per minute, speaking at 140.
Flesch reading ease for English text. Add at least 30 words to see the score.
The most used words appear here.
How to use this word counter
- Type or paste your text into the box. Words, characters, sentences and paragraphs update while you type, and long texts (a whole book) work too.
- Select part of the text to count only that part: the count for the selection appears under the box.
- Check the limits. The Length limits panel shows how much room is left for a post on X, an SMS, a Google title or meta description, an Instagram caption and more. Add your own limit in words or characters for an essay or a form.
- Look at the keyword density to see which words and 2- or 3-word phrases you repeat most, for SEO or to find words you overuse.
- Change the case with one click (UPPER, lower, Title Case, Sentence case), clean double spaces, or join lines that were broken when you copied from a PDF. Undo brings the text back.
Your text stays in your browser. It is kept on this device so it survives a reload; untick Keep text on this device or press Clear to remove it.
How words and characters are counted
| Count | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Words | Everything between spaces or line breaks that has at least one letter or digit (the Microsoft Word rule). Each Chinese or Japanese character is one word. | well-known, don't, 3.14 = 1 word each; — alone = 0 |
| Characters | Every letter, digit, symbol, space and line break. An emoji or an accented letter is one character. | Hi 👋 = 4 |
| No spaces | Characters without spaces, tabs and line breaks. | Hi 👋 = 3 |
| Sentences | Ends at . ! ? 。 or at the end of a line. Mr., Dr., e.g., i.e. and initials do not end a sentence. | Dr. Lee left. Why? = 2 |
| Paragraphs | Lines that are not empty. | Blank lines are not counted |
| Size (UTF-8) | Bytes when saved as a UTF-8 file. English letters take 1 byte, accented letters 2, Chinese characters 3, emoji 4. | é = 2 bytes |
Character limits: X, SMS, Google and social media
| Where | Limit | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Post on X (Twitter) | 280 characters | Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters and emoji count as 2, every link as 23. Paid accounts can post longer texts. |
| SMS text message | 160 characters | Only 70 if the text has a character outside the GSM alphabet (an emoji, Chinese, many accents). Longer texts are split into parts of 153 or 67 characters, and each part is charged. |
| Google title | about 50–60 characters | Google cuts titles by width (about 600 pixels), not by a fixed number, so wide letters like W and M fit fewer. |
| Meta description | about 150–160 characters | Longer descriptions are cut with "…" in the results, and on phones even earlier. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters | Only the first line or two show before "more". |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters | About the first 200 characters show before "see more". |
| YouTube | title 100, description 5,000 | Keep the important words at the start of the title; it is cut on phones. |
Words, pages and minutes
How long is a text with a given number of words? Pages assume a 12 pt font like Times New Roman with 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins. Reading time uses 238 words per minute, the average for adults reading non-fiction silently (Brysbaert, 2019); speaking time uses a calm presentation pace of 140 words per minute.
| Words | Single-spaced | Double-spaced | Reading | Speaking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 | 0.6 page | 1.2 pages | about 1 min | about 2 min |
| 500 | 1 page | 2 pages | about 2 min | about 4 min |
| 1,000 | 2 pages | 4 pages | about 4 min | about 7 min |
| 1,500 | 3 pages | 6 pages | about 6 min | about 11 min |
| 2,000 | 4 pages | 8 pages | about 8 min | about 14 min |
| 5,000 | 10 pages | 20 pages | about 21 min | about 36 min |
What the readability score means
The Flesch reading ease score uses two things: how long your sentences are and how many syllables your words have. Shorter sentences and shorter words give a higher score, which means easier text. The grade is the Flesch–Kincaid grade level: the US school year that can read the text easily. Both work for English only, and syllables are estimated, so treat them as a guide.
| Score | Reads as | Typical text |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | Very easy | Children's books |
| 70–90 | Easy | Popular fiction, chat messages |
| 60–70 | Plain English | Good websites, newspapers |
| 50–60 | Fairly difficult | Magazines, school textbooks |
| 30–50 | Difficult | University texts |
| 0–30 | Very difficult | Scientific papers, legal contracts |
For a website, aim for 60 or more: use short sentences, everyday words, and one idea per paragraph.
Count words in other programs
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Word | Review › Word Count, or Ctrl+Shift+G on Windows. The count of the whole document is also in the status bar. |
| Google Docs | Tools › Word count, or Ctrl+Shift+C (Cmd+Shift+C on a Mac). Tick "Display word count while typing". |
| Excel / Google Sheets | =IF(LEN(TRIM(A1))=0,0,LEN(TRIM(A1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A1)," ",""))+1) |
| Linux / macOS | wc -w file.txt (words), wc -m file.txt (characters) |
| Python | len(text.split()) |
| JavaScript | text.trim().split(/\s+/).filter(Boolean).length |
These simple formulas count every group of characters between spaces, so a dash standing alone counts as a word there, and Chinese or Japanese text without spaces counts as one word per sentence.
Frequently asked questions
How does this word counter count words?
A word is anything between spaces or line breaks that contains at least one letter or digit, the same rule Microsoft Word uses. So well-known, don't, e.g. and 3.14 are one word each, and a dash or bullet standing alone is not a word. Chinese and Japanese characters are counted one word per character, because those languages do not put spaces between words.
Are spaces and line breaks counted as characters?
In Characters, yes: every space and every line break counts as one character, as on X, in SMS and in most input boxes with a limit. Characters without spaces leaves out all spaces, tabs and line breaks. An emoji or a letter with an accent counts as one character, even when it is stored as several code points.
Why does Word or Google Docs show a different word count?
Each program has its own small rules. Google Docs counts and/or or a URL as several words and does not count some symbols, Microsoft Word counts them as one. This counter follows Word: everything between spaces that has a letter or a digit is one word. The difference is usually less than 1 percent, except in text with many slashes, URLs or dashes without spaces.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes. Adults read non-fiction silently at about 238 words per minute on average (Brysbaert, 2019). Reading the same 1,000 words aloud in a talk takes about 7 minutes at a calm 140 words per minute. The counter shows both times for your text.
How many words is one page?
About 500 words single-spaced and about 250 words double-spaced, with a 12 pt font such as Times New Roman and 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins. Headings, short paragraphs and bigger fonts make it fewer. So a 1,000-word essay is about 2 pages single-spaced or 4 pages double-spaced.
How many characters can a post on X or an SMS have?
A post on X can have 280 characters, but X counts each Chinese, Japanese or Korean character and each emoji as 2, and every link as 23. One SMS holds 160 characters of the basic GSM alphabet, or only 70 if the text has any other character, such as an emoji or many accented letters; longer messages are sent in parts of 153 or 67. The Length limits panel shows both counts the way the services measure them.
Is my text saved or uploaded?
It is never uploaded: all counting happens in your browser and the page sends nothing to a server. To keep your text when you close the tab or reload, it is saved in your browser's local storage on this device. Turn off Keep text on this device, or press Clear, to remove it.