Word Counter

What counts as a word?

This tool counts words by splitting your text on whitespace, so hyphenated words and contractions (like "well-known" or "don't") each count as one word the same way most word processors count them. Numbers and standalone symbols count as words too, matching how Microsoft Word and Google Docs handle them.

Why word and character counts matter

Word and character limits show up everywhere: a post on X tops out at 280 characters, a text message splits into multiple SMS segments past 160 characters, and a Google Ads headline is capped at 30 characters. On the content side, most style guides target specific ranges a college admissions essay is usually 500-650 words, a blog post aimed at ranking well in search typically runs 1,000-1,500+ words, a novel manuscript is generally 70,000-100,000 words, and short story submissions are often capped at 5,000 words. Pasting a draft here shows instantly whether it's inside the limit before submitting it anywhere.

How read time is calculated

Read time is estimated at 200 words per minute, the average adult silent-reading speed cited in most readability research. A 1,000-word blog post works out to about 5 minutes; a 250-word cover letter is under a minute and a half. It's a rough guide, not a stopwatch technical or dense material reads slower than casual writing.

Characters with spaces vs. without

Character counts are shown both ways because platforms count differently. Social platforms and SMS almost always count spaces as characters (a space still takes up room in a text message), while some print and typesetting contexts count only non-space characters. If a platform's limit doesn't match what's expected here, check whether it counts spaces.

FAQ

Does this match Microsoft Word's count?
It should be very close. Minor differences can occur around how special characters or numbers are treated, but word and character counts will typically match within a word or two.

Is there a word limit?
No paste as much text as you like. Very long documents (tens of thousands of words) may count slightly slower since everything runs in your browser.

Is my text saved or uploaded?
No. Counting happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript nothing is sent to a server or stored anywhere.

Why does my sentence count look off?
Sentences are detected by counting periods, question marks, and exclamation points. Abbreviations like "Dr." or "e.g." can occasionally be miscounted as sentence breaks a known limitation of simple punctuation-based counting, not a bug specific to this tool.

Does it count words in other languages?
It works with any language that separates words with spaces, including Spanish, French, and German. Languages that don't use spaces between words, like Chinese or Japanese, will show a character count that's more reliable than the word count.