Free · in-browser · nothing uploaded
Word Counter
Paste or type and watch every count update live — words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, reading and speaking time — plus how your text fits the character limits that matter (X, SMS, meta descriptions). Your text never leaves the browser.
Short answer
A word is a whitespace-separated token (matching Word and Google Docs), characters are counted with and without spaces, and reading time uses the research average of 238 words per minute — so 1,000 words is about a 4-minute read. Type or paste below; every figure updates live and your text never leaves the browser.
Live count
0 words
- Words
- 0
- Characters
- 0
- Without spaces
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Reading time
- 0 sec
- Speaking time
- 0 sec
Room left on…
- X (Twitter) post280
- SMS (single message)160
- Google title tag (chars shown)60
- Google meta description160
Reading times and the character counter
Reading and speaking time by word count
| Words | Silent reading (238 wpm) | Speaking (150 wpm) |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | 2 min 6 sec | 3 min 20 sec |
| 750 | 3 min 9 sec | 5 min |
| 1,000 | 4 min 12 sec | 6 min 40 sec |
| 1,500 | 6 min 18 sec | 10 min |
| 2,000 | 8 min 24 sec | 13 min 20 sec |
| 2,500 | 10 min 30 sec | 16 min 40 sec |
| 3,000 | 12 min 36 sec | 20 min |
| 5,000 | 21 min 1 sec | 33 min 20 sec |
| 7,500 | 31 min 31 sec | 50 min |
| 10,000 | 42 min 1 sec | 66 min 40 sec |
Averages for adult non-fiction reading and a comfortable presentation pace — technical material and careful proofreading run slower.
Character limits that matter
| Platform | Limit |
|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters |
| SMS (single message) | 160 characters |
| Google title tag (chars shown) | 60 characters |
| Google meta description | 160 characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters |
| YouTube title | 100 characters |
Third-party platform rules, verified against their documentation — emoji can count as two characters where platforms count Unicode code units.
Why counts differ between tools
Every counter agrees on ordinary prose and drifts on the edges: hyphenated compounds, em-dashes without spaces, URLs, and footnote markers each get tokenized slightly differently, and sentence counts depend on punctuation heuristics that abbreviations can fool. This tool counts the way mainstream word processors do, states its rules openly in the methodology below, and — unlike the counters that ship your text to a server to count it — does everything on your own machine.
How we calculate this
How each number is counted, stated plainly:
- Words & characters. words are whitespace-separated tokens (so "state-of-the-art" is one word); characters are counted with and without whitespace.
- Sentences & paragraphs. sentences split on ., ! and ? followed by a space — a heuristic that abbreviations like "e.g." can fool slightly; paragraphs are blank-line-separated blocks.
- Reading & speaking time. words ÷ 238 wpm for silent reading (the research average) and ÷ 150 wpm for a comfortable speaking pace.
Assumptions
- All counting happens in your browser — the text is never sent anywhere.
- Reading speed varies with difficulty and reader: 200–260 wpm covers most adult non-fiction; skimming and technical reading fall outside it.
- Sentence counting is a punctuation heuristic, not a grammar parser — treat it as a close estimate on prose with abbreviations.
Sources
Last reviewed: July 28, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Is my text uploaded when I use this word counter?+
No. All counting runs in your browser with plain JavaScript — the page makes no network request containing your text, nothing is stored, and closing the tab destroys it. You can verify in your browser's network tab: typing produces zero requests. That matters for anything confidential — contracts, unpublished manuscripts, student work.
What counts as a word?+
Any whitespace-separated token: "state-of-the-art" is one word, "hello, world!" is two. That matches how word processors like Word and Google Docs count, so essay and article limits line up. Numbers, abbreviations and URLs each count as one word too — a word counter measures tokens, not vocabulary.
Do spaces count as characters?+
Both figures are shown: 'characters' includes every letter, digit, punctuation mark and space, while 'without spaces' strips whitespace. Platform limits (X's 280, SMS's 160, Google snippets) count spaces, so the with-spaces figure is the one to watch for those. Some academic and translation contexts bill by characters without spaces instead.
How accurate is the reading time?+
It uses 238 words per minute — the research average for adults reading non-fiction silently (Brysbaert, 2019) — so it's a solid planning figure for articles and essays. Real speed varies: careful or technical reading runs 150–200 wpm, skimming 300–400+. The per-pace table on the reading-time pages shows the spread; for a speech, use the 150 wpm speaking figure and rehearse once.
How many words is 500 characters, roughly?+
English averages about 5 characters per word plus a space, so 500 characters is roughly 80–85 words. It's an average, not a rule — technical writing with long words runs fewer, dialogue with short words more. When a form gives a character limit and you think in words, divide by six for a safe estimate, then paste your draft here for the exact count.
Why does my count differ slightly from Word or Google Docs?+
Edge cases: em-dashes without spaces, slashes joining words, and footnote markers get tokenized differently by different tools — usually a difference of a word or two per page. Sentence counts vary more because every tool uses punctuation heuristics that abbreviations like "e.g." can fool. Word and character counts here match mainstream word processors on ordinary prose.
All counting happens in your browser — nothing you type is transmitted or stored.