Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time — live as you type.
Quick answer: Word Counter: count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time — live as you type. Runs entirely in your browser, free, no signup.
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Good to know
A word count is never a single objective number — it depends on how you define a word, which is why this counter can differ slightly from Word or Google Docs on punctuation-heavy or hyphenated text. For prose the counts line up closely, because the same whitespace-tokenizing approach is used. Where it genuinely diverges is CJK scripts (Chinese, Japanese): those languages do not separate words with spaces, so they are counted by character, which is the honest way to measure them.
The reading-time estimate assumes 200 words per minute, a comfortable adult pace for prose. Treat it as a range rather than a promise: skimming runs closer to 400 wpm and careful, technical reading nearer 150, so a dense specification will take longer than the badge suggests. It is a planning aid for blog posts and scripts, not a stopwatch.
Because everything runs locally, confidential drafts are safe to paste. If you are optimizing for a hard character limit — a tweet, an SMS, or an SEO title — the dedicated Character Counter shows platform thresholds and byte length, which the word counter does not focus on.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I count words in my text?
- Paste or type your text into the text area. The word, character, sentence and paragraph counts update live with no extra clicks.
- Is there a character counter too?
- Yes. We show characters with and without spaces, so you can match limits like 280 for X/Twitter or 60 for SEO titles.
- Does it count words like Microsoft Word?
- We use the same approach: tokens separated by whitespace, ignoring stray punctuation. The counts match Word and Google Docs for most documents.
- How is reading time calculated?
- Reading time uses 200 words per minute, which is a comfortable adult reading speed. Skimming is closer to 400, careful reading closer to 150.
- Can I count words in multiple languages?
- Yes. Latin scripts work out of the box. East Asian scripts (Chinese, Japanese) are counted by character because words don't have visible separators.
- Is it accurate for code or markdown?
- Yes for high-level counts, but be aware that punctuation-heavy code or markdown syntax may produce a different word count than a clean prose document.
- Is the word counter free?
- Yes, completely free with no signup or limits.
- Is my text saved?
- No. Your text never leaves your device — there's no upload and we don't store anything in the cloud.
- Can I count words from a PDF or Word file?
- This tool counts text you paste in. Open your document, copy the text, and paste it here.
- Does it work on mobile?
- Yes. The text area and counters work on iPhone, Android and tablets.