Word & Character Counter
Paste or type text to count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and lines, with reading time, top words and character limit checks.
Character limits
Most used words
Words will appear here as you type.
How to use
- Type or paste your text into the box. The statistics update as you type.
- Read the word, character, sentence, paragraph and line counts, plus reading and speaking time.
- Check the character limit bars to see whether the text fits a post, an SMS or a search snippet.
- Use the most used words list to spot repetition. Untick Ignore common words to include words like the and of.
Example
Input
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Output
Words: 9 Characters: 44 Characters (no spaces): 36 Sentences: 1 Paragraphs: 1 Reading time: 2 sec
Common use cases
- Keeping essays, articles and assignments within a word limit.
- Fitting copy into an X post, an SMS or a page title and meta description.
- Estimating how long a text takes to read or deliver as a speech.
- Spotting overused words when editing.
Common mistakes
- Counting characters with and without spaces interchangeably. Check which one your limit uses.
- Treating sentence counts as exact. Abbreviations such as Dr. or e.g. can be counted as sentence ends.
- Expecting a word count for languages written without spaces, such as Chinese, Japanese or Thai. Their text is not split into words here.
- Relying on character counts for search snippets. Search engines truncate by display width, so treat the limits as guidelines.
Frequently asked questions
How are words counted?
A word is a run of letters or numbers. Apostrophes and hyphens inside a word are kept, so don't and well-known each count as one word.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time assumes about 238 words per minute, a typical silent reading speed for adults. Speaking time assumes about 130 words per minute. Real speeds vary with the text and the person.
Do emoji and accented letters count as one character?
Yes. Characters are counted as what you see on screen, so an emoji or a letter with an accent counts once, even when it is stored as several code units.
What are the character limits based on?
They are common guidelines: 280 characters for a standard X post, 160 characters for a single SMS in the standard GSM character set (fewer when it contains emoji or other special characters), and roughly 60 and 160 characters for page titles and meta descriptions.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Counting happens entirely in your browser and your text is never sent, logged or stored.