Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs as you type, with an estimated reading time. Everything updates live, no button needed.
Runs locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
What is Word Counter?
Word Counter is a free online tool that counts the words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in any text, live as you type. Writers use it to hit an essay or article word limit, social media managers use it to trim a caption, students use it to check an assignment length, and translators use it to estimate the size of a job. Because the counting happens on every keystroke, there is no button to press and no waiting: the numbers always describe exactly what is in the box.
The counting rules are simple and stated up front so results are never a mystery. Words are runs of text separated by whitespace, so “Hello world” is two words. Characters are counted by unicode code point, which means one emoji counts as one character and a line break counts as one character too. Characters excluding spaces drops every space, tab, and line break. Sentences are split on runs of sentence-ending punctuation (. ! ?), and paragraphs are blocks of text separated by blank lines. Reading time assumes an average adult reading speed of about 200 words per minute, a widely used benchmark; actual reading speed varies, so treat it as a rough guide rather than a precise measure.
How to use Word Counter
Just start typing or paste text into the box. The six figures below update with every keystroke: words, characters, characters excluding spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and reading time. If you want a quick demonstration, press Load example to fill in a short sample, then edit it and watch the numbers follow. Press Clear to empty the box and start over. Because the tool runs entirely in your browser, you can safely count drafts, private notes, or unpublished work without sending anything to a server.
Frequently asked questions
How are words counted? Text is trimmed and split on whitespace, so any run of characters separated by spaces, tabs, or line breaks is one word. Hyphenated words such as “well-known” count as one word, while numbers on their own also count as words.
Why does another tool give a different count? Counting conventions differ. Some tools split hyphenated words, some ignore numbers, and some count characters by UTF-16 code units, which makes many emoji count as two. This tool documents its rules above so you can compare like with like.
How accurate is the reading time? It divides the word count by 200 words per minute, a standard average for silent reading. Dense or technical text takes longer in practice, and skimming is faster, so use the figure as an estimate.
Is there a size limit? There is no server and no upload, so the only limit is your browser. Very long documents of hundreds of thousands of words still count, though typing in an enormous paste may feel slower on older devices.