Word Counter

Count words, characters, and sentences in your text instantly, right in your browser. Whether you're checking an essay against a word limit, trimming a social media post, or polishing a cover letter, this tool gives you an accurate live count as you type or paste, with no sign-up and no waiting.

How it works

The counter treats any run of non-whitespace characters as a single word, so "well-known" and "don't" each count as one word, matching how most word processors count. Characters are counted both with and without spaces so you can check against either kind of limit. Sentences are detected by looking for a period, question mark, or exclamation point followed by a space or the end of the text, and paragraphs are counted as blocks of text separated by a blank line. Reading time is estimated at roughly 200 words per minute, a commonly used average for adult silent reading speed.

Worked example

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." has 9 words, 44 characters (35 without spaces), and 1 sentence. A three-paragraph, 600-word blog post draft would show an estimated reading time of about 3 minutes.