Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences.
Overview
Count the words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, and paragraphs in your text. The result updates live as you type or paste. Most counters also show reading time estimates and average sentence length, which together give a quick read on how dense your prose is.
Writers tracking word-count goals (NaNoWriMo, 500-words-a-day challenges), students hitting essay length requirements, marketers fitting copy into meta descriptions and ad blocks, and editors auditing manuscripts all reach for a word counter every day. The browser-side counter avoids any round-trip to a server.
How it works
Word counts split the text on whitespace and count non-empty tokens. Character counts come in two flavors: with-spaces (total length) and without-spaces (visible glyphs only). Sentence count uses end-of-sentence punctuation with adjustment for known abbreviations. Paragraph count splits on blank lines. Reading time is computed at a typical adult silent-reading speed of 200–250 words per minute.
Some implementations also count syllables and apply the Flesch Reading Ease formula in the same panel.
Examples
Text:
"The quick brown fox jumps. Over the lazy dog?"
Counts:
Words: 9
Characters: 45
Characters (no sp): 37
Sentences: 2
Paragraphs: 1
Reading time: ~5 seconds
FAQ
How are words counted — by whitespace or by something smarter?
By whitespace. "Hello, world" is two words. Hyphenated compounds ("up-to-date") are usually counted as one word. The threshold for what counts as a word varies between tools — Word's count, Google Docs' count, and this tool's count may differ slightly.
What counts as a sentence?
Anything ending in ., !, or ? followed by whitespace or end-of-text. The tool tries to exclude common abbreviations ("Mr.", "etc.") from triggering sentence breaks.
Is reading time accurate?
It's an estimate. Adults typically read prose silently at 200–250 wpm; technical content runs slower (around 150 wpm); skimming runs faster. The displayed number is a midrange estimate.