Count Words and Characters in Your Text
Paste an essay, article or social post to get an instant word count together with characters, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time. The keyword list shows which terms you lean on most, so you can spot repetition before you publish.
How to count words
- Type in the text box or paste your text — the statistics update as you type.
- Read the counts for words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences and paragraphs.
- Check the reading and speaking time estimates and the average word length.
- Review the top keywords table to find overused words, then copy or download the full report.
How words are counted
Words are found with the browser's built-in Unicode word segmenter, so punctuation is ignored, contractions such as "don't" count once and hyphenated compounds such as "well-known" count as a single word, matching most word processors. Chinese and Japanese text has no spaces; the segmenter splits it into dictionary words, and reading time is estimated per character instead. If you need exact character limits for posts or SMS, use the Character Counter.
Benefits
- Live counts with no button to press, even for long documents.
- Reading and speaking time estimates help plan blog posts and talks.
- Keyword density with stop words removed shows real repetition, not "the" and "and".
Limitations
- Word counts can differ slightly from Microsoft Word or Google Docs for edge cases such as URLs, numbers with separators and slashes.
- Reading time is an average (about 238 words per minute); technical text is usually read more slowly.
- Stop-word filtering for keywords is English-only.
Privacy and security
All counting happens with JavaScript in this browser tab. Your text is not uploaded, logged or stored, so you can safely check unpublished drafts and confidential documents.
Read our privacy policy for details about the site as a whole.
Frequently asked questions
Does the word count include numbers?
Yes. A number such as 2026 or 3.5 counts as one word, the same way word processors count it. Punctuation and emoji on their own are not counted as words.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time divides the word count by 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for adults. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a typical presentation pace.
What is keyword density?
It is how often a word appears as a percentage of all words. A density above roughly 3% for a single term often reads as repetitive, so it is a useful signal when editing.
Can I count words in Chinese or Japanese?
Yes. The browser's segmenter splits text without spaces into words, and the reading time switches to a characters-per-minute estimate for CJK text.