Word and Character Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs in any text in real time, with a reading-time estimate.
How it works
The tool analyzes the text you paste or type and returns six measures at once, updated on every keystroke:
- Words — sequences separated by spaces, line breaks or tabs.
- Characters — every symbol, including spaces.
- No spaces — only the characters that aren't whitespace.
- Sentences — stretches ending in a period, exclamation mark or question mark.
- Paragraphs — blocks of text separated by a blank line.
- Reading time — an estimate based on about 200 words per minute, an average adult reading speed.
Everything is processed in your browser. Nothing is sent to any server, so you can paste long or sensitive text without worry.
When to use
This count solves very concrete everyday situations. Students use it to respect a word limit on an essay. Marketers and writers track the length of posts, titles and meta descriptions, which often have strict character limits. Anyone writing for social media needs to fit within each platform's maximum. And any content creator can use the estimated reading time to give readers a sense of how long a piece will take.
Practical examples
Fitting a meta description
A good meta description usually stays between 120 and 160 characters to appear in full on Google. Typing the text into the counter, the "Characters" field immediately shows whether you've gone over the limit — no need to publish to find out.
Checking an essay length
An assignment asks for 500 to 800 words. Pasting the draft here shows instantly whether it's too short or over the limit, so you can adjust before submitting.
Common mistakes
A frequent point of confusion is the difference between "characters" and "characters without spaces". Many limits — from résumés to form fields — refer to one or the other, and mixing them up can make you think you've gone over (or still have room) when you haven't. Here both counts appear separately for exactly that reason.
Another mistake is expecting sentence and paragraph counts to be perfect on any text. Abbreviations with periods, ellipses and lists can confuse automatic sentence detection. Treat those numbers as a good approximation, not an exact truth for very irregular text.
Finally, reading time is an average. Fast readers or highly technical text can deviate quite a bit — it's meant to give an order of magnitude, not a precise stopwatch.
Frequently asked questions
Is the text I paste sent to a server?
No. All counting happens inside your browser. The text never leaves your device, which makes the tool safe even for confidential content.
How is reading time calculated?
It uses an average of about 200 words per minute, common for adult reading. The value is an estimate and varies with the reader and the complexity of the text.
Do emojis and accents count as characters?
Yes. Accents, punctuation, emojis and spaces all count toward the total character count. If you need only the essentials, use the "no spaces" field.
Is there a text size limit?
There is no fixed limit. Because processing is local, very large texts depend only on your device, and everyday use runs into no restrictions.