Runs in your browser: nothing you enter or choose is uploaded.

This word counter counts words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences and paragraphs as you type. It also estimates reading and speaking time, scores readability with the Flesch reading ease test, and lists the words you use most.

Paste an essay, a post or a caption to check it against common limits. Everything runs in your browser: your text isn’t uploaded or saved.

How to use the word counter

Type or paste your text into the box labeled Type or paste your text. The counts update a moment after you stop typing.
Read the word count at the top of the results, then the table of characters, sentences, paragraphs and average sentence length.
Check reading time and speaking time if you’re writing a blog post, a speech or a video script.
Look at Flesch reading ease to see how easy the text is to read. Higher scores are easier.
Use the Top words table to spot words you repeat too often.
Check the limits table before you post. A red number means the text is over that limit.

What each number means

Count	How the tool counts it
Words	Any run of characters between spaces that isn’t only punctuation. A hyphenated word like well-known counts as one; a dash on its own doesn’t count.
Characters	Every letter, number, space, punctuation mark and line break. An emoji counts as one.
Characters without spaces	The same, minus spaces, tabs and line breaks.
Sentences	Text that ends in a period, question mark, exclamation point or ellipsis, or a block followed by a blank line.
Paragraphs	Each line of text that ends where you pressed Enter. Empty lines are skipped.
Reading time	Words divided by 238 words a minute.
Speaking time	Words divided by 150 words a minute.

Reading speed varies a lot from person to person, so treat both times as rough guides. Research by Marc Brysbaert puts the average adult silent reading speed at about 240 words a minute, lower than the 300 that is often quoted, and typical speech at about 140 to 180 words a minute. The tool uses 238 and 150, inside those ranges.

Flesch reading ease

The Flesch reading ease score combines average sentence length and average syllables per word. Microsoft’s support page for Word gives the formula: 206.835 − (1.015 × average sentence length) − (84.6 × average syllables per word). Scores run from 0 to 100, and a higher score means the text is easier to understand. Microsoft suggests a score between 60 and 70 for most standard documents.

The tool counts syllables with a common rule of thumb (groups of vowels, minus a silent final e), so its score can differ by a few points from Word’s. Next to the score is a plain label, from Very easy to Very hard. To raise the score, split long sentences and swap long words for shorter ones. The formula was built for English, so ignore it for other languages.

Top words and keyword density

The top words table lists the eight words you use most, leaving out common words like the, and and of. Density is each word’s share of all the words in your text. It’s a quick way to catch a word you lean on too much. If you write for the web, don’t chase a target density: write for your readers.

Why word counts differ between apps

Paste the same text into Microsoft Word, Google Docs and a web word counter and you may see slightly different numbers. Each app decides what counts as a word, and which parts of a document to include.

Microsoft Word shows the word count in the status bar as you type. Select some text and the status bar shows the count for the selection and for the whole document. Click the count to see characters, paragraphs and lines.
Google Docs shows counts under Tools → Word count: pages, words, characters and characters without spaces. Turn on Display word count while typing to keep a running count in the bottom-left corner. Unless you select part of the document, Google says the count covers everything except headers, footers and footnotes.
This tool counts exactly the text you paste, and nothing else.

Hyphens, dashes, numbers and web addresses are common sources of small differences. If a teacher or editor sets a limit, check the count in the app they’ll use.

To see readability statistics in Word for Windows, Microsoft’s steps are: go to File → Options → Proofing, then select Check grammar with spelling and Show readability statistics. Word shows the statistics when it finishes a spelling and grammar check.

Word counter tips for essays

Check what counts. Ask whether the title, headings, quotes, footnotes and reference list count toward the limit.
Ask how strict the limit is. Some teachers allow a margin either side and some don’t, so ask instead of guessing.
Cut filler, not content. Words like really, very and actually can often go, and the top words table shows which words you repeat.
Watch sentence length. If the average words per sentence is high and the readability score is low, split your longest sentences.
Using AI to help draft or edit? Check your school’s rules first, and see our comparison of the best AI for writing essays.

Social apps count characters, not words. These are the limits the tool checks, taken from each company’s own documentation:

Where	Limit	Notes
X (Twitter) post	280 characters	Links count as 23 characters and emoji as 2, according to X’s developer documentation.
Instagram caption	2,200 characters	Meta’s Instagram API documentation also caps captions at 30 hashtags and 20 @ tags.
SMS text message	160 characters	Drops to 70 when the message uses emoji or other characters outside the basic SMS set. Longer texts are split into parts of 153 (or 67) characters.

The SMS check is cautious. It switches to the 70-character limit as soon as your text has any character outside basic English letters, numbers and punctuation, so it may be stricter than your phone.

Meta descriptions for search results work differently. Google says there’s no limit on how long a meta description can be, but it cuts the snippet to fit the device width. To preview a title and description the way Google shows them, use our meta title and description checker.

Writing a prompt for ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude? AI models count tokens, not words. Our AI token counter estimates tokens and shows how much of a context window your text uses. More writing and productivity tools are on our Apps hub, and AI guides are on our AI hub.

Privacy

The word counter runs entirely in your browser. Your text isn’t uploaded, saved or sent anywhere, and it’s gone when you close the tab (some browsers refill the box if you reload the page). That makes it fine for drafts, private messages and work documents.

Limitations

Readability scores and syllable counts are tuned for English.
Chinese, Japanese and Thai don’t put spaces between words, so word counts for those languages will be far too low. Character counts still work.
Abbreviations like “e.g.” can add an extra sentence to the sentence count.
Social media limits can change, so check the app before you post.

Related free tool: our keyboard tester.

FAQ

How many words is a 5-minute speech?

At the tool’s 150 words a minute, about 750 words. Fast speakers fit more and slow speakers fewer, so time yourself reading it aloud.

How long does it take to read 1,000 words?

About 4 minutes at 238 words a minute. Dense or technical text takes longer.

Does the word counter count hyphenated words as one word?

Yes. A word like well-known counts as one. A dash with spaces around it doesn’t count as a word.

Do spaces count as characters?

In the main character count, yes. Use Characters without spaces if your limit leaves them out.

Is my text saved or uploaded?

No. The counts are worked out in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.

Word Counter (Words, Characters and Reading Time)