Word Counter
Type or paste your text to count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs, and to estimate reading and speaking time. Everything updates as you type.
Runs in your browser. Your data is not uploaded.How our tools work
Counts update as you type. Your text stays in your browser.
Text statistics
- Words
- 0
- Characters
- 0
- No spaces
- 0
- Characters without spaces
- Sentences
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Lines
- 0
- Reading time
- 0 min
- At 238 words/min
- Speaking time
- 0 min
- At 150 words/min
How do I count the words in my text?
Paste or type your text into the box and the word count updates as you type, along with characters, sentences and paragraphs. Reading time is estimated at 238 words per minute and speaking time at 150. The text is counted in your browser and never sent anywhere.
Wondering how hyphens and numbers are counted, or what a word limit includes? Read our guide: What Counts as a Word? Hyphens, Numbers and Word Limits
Key features
Live counts
Words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines update as you type.
Reading and speaking time
Estimates based on 238 words per minute for silent reading and 150 for speaking aloud.
Most used words
Spot repetition by seeing which words you use more than once, leaving out short and common words such as “the” and “and”.
Common uses
- Keep essays, assignments and applications within a word limit
- Check the length of blog posts, articles and product descriptions
- Time a speech or presentation
- Find overused words while editing
How words are counted
A word is any group of letters, numbers or emoji separated by spaces or line breaks. Hyphenated words such as “state-of-the-art” and contractions like “don’t” count as one word, the same way most word processors count them. Punctuation on its own, such as a dash between spaces, isn’t counted.
Word counts can differ slightly between tools, mainly in how they treat hyphens, numbers and symbols. If an assignment has a strict limit, check which tool your teacher or publisher uses.
Related tools
Frequently Asked Questions
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time divides the word count by 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed of adults reading English non-fiction found by a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies (see Sources below). Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a typical pace for presentations.
Does it count words in other languages?
Yes. Any language that separates words with spaces is counted accurately. For Chinese and Japanese, each character is counted as a word, which is the usual convention.
Why does my word processor show a different number?
Tools differ in small details, such as whether “–” or a number like “3.5” counts as a word. Differences are usually very small.
Is there a length limit?
There’s no fixed limit. Very long texts of hundreds of thousands of words still work, although updates may take a moment on slower devices.
Sources
Last updated:
Related guides & tutorials
What Counts as a Word? Hyphens, Numbers and Word Limits
Where to find a word count, how hyphens, numbers and dashes are counted, and how to work with word limits for essays, articles and speeches.
How Many Words Is a Page?
How many words fit on a page single- and double-spaced, what changes the count, and how to convert a page limit into words.