Count Words Online

Paste your text to see live word and character counts as you type, plus reading time and a readability score. Check an essay against a word count or keep a post under a character limit.

Word Counter

LOCAL · Browser-Only

Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in your text

Words

Characters

No Spaces

Sentences

Paragraphs

Lines

0 sec

Reading(wpm)

0 sec

Speaking(wpm)

0.0

Avg Word Length

Unique Words

Enter text to analyze

Start typing or paste text above to see a full analysis - word frequency, keyword density, readability score, and more.

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Quick Start

1Type or paste your text into the input area
2Watch the word and character counts update live
3Check reading time and readability if you need them
4Trim or expand until you hit your target count

What This Tool Does

Counts update as you type: words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines in the first row, then reading time, speaking time, average word length and unique word count underneath.

Reading and speaking speed are editable rather than fixed. The defaults are 238 words a minute for reading and 150 for speaking, which suit general prose, but if you know your own pace for a script or a talk you can set it and the estimate follows.

Below the counts sit the things a word count alone will not tell you: a reading ease score with five grade-level formulas beside it, the fifteen most common words with an option to include or exclude ordinary filler words, and keyword density across one, two and three word phrases.

Limits Worth Knowing

Sentence detection uses punctuation plus a list of common abbreviations, so text with unusual punctuation can come out a sentence or two off.
The syllable count behind the readability scores works on the Latin alphabet, so those figures are not meaningful for text in other scripts.
Hyphenated compounds are counted as one word.
There is no file upload and no export beyond copying the statistics block to your clipboard.
Platform character limits are not shown on this tool. The letter counter has that panel.

Common Questions

How accurate is the reading time?

It is the word count divided by a reading speed you can change. The default of 238 words a minute suits general prose; slow it down for dense technical writing.

What is the readability score?

Reading ease on a scale of 0 to 100, where higher is easier, with five grade-level formulas next to it so you can see whether they agree before trusting any single one.

Does it count words the way my word processor does?

Closely, but not identically. Hyphenated compounds count as one word here, and different processors make that call differently.

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Looking for FAQs and advanced options? Visit the full Word Counter page →

What This Tool Does

Limits Worth Knowing

Sentence detection uses punctuation plus a list of common abbreviations, so text with unusual punctuation can come out a sentence or two off.

The syllable count behind the readability scores works on the Latin alphabet, so those figures are not meaningful for text in other scripts.

Hyphenated compounds are counted as one word.

There is no file upload and no export beyond copying the statistics block to your clipboard.

Platform character limits are not shown on this tool. The letter counter has that panel.