Word counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with reading time, keyword density and limits for posts and essays.
Runs in your browser. Your text is never uploaded or saved.
0 words · 0 characters
- Words
- 0
- Characters
- 0
- Characters without spaces
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Unique words
- 0
- Average word length
- 0.0letters
- Average sentence length
- 0.0words
- Reading time
- 0 sec
- Speaking time
- 0 sec
Length targets
Common limits for posts, search snippets and essays.
Online
- Tweet or X post0 / 280 characters
- Meta description0 / 160 characters
- Page title0 / 60 characters
Essays
- Short essay0 / 500 words
- College application essay0 / 650 words
Keyword density
Common words like “the” and “with” are left out.
No keywords yet
Add some text and the words you use most will show up here.
How it’s calculated
Plain rules, applied the same way every time. Here is exactly what each number counts.
- Words
- Any run of characters between spaces that contains a letter or a number. Contractions and hyphenated words count once, while dashes and stray punctuation don’t count at all.
- Characters
- Every character you typed, including spaces and line breaks. Accented letters and most emoji count once. The second figure leaves out all whitespace.
- Sentences and paragraphs
- A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a new sentence, and at every line break. Abbreviations like “Dr.” and “e.g.” and initials don’t end one. Paragraphs are blocks separated by a line break.
- Reading and speaking time
- Reading: words ÷ 238 a minuteSpeaking: words ÷ 140 a minute238 words a minute is the average silent reading speed for adults reading non-fiction. 140 a minute is a comfortable pace for a talk or a recorded video.
- Unique words and averages
- Unique words ignore capitalization, so “The” and “the” count once. Average word length counts letters and digits only; average sentence length is words divided by sentences.
- Keyword density
- times used ÷ total words × 100How often a word or two-word phrase appears per 100 words. Common words like “the”, “and” and “with” are left out so the terms that carry your meaning rise to the top.
Word counter questions
Anything else? The help center has more.
No. Everything is counted by code running in your browser tab. Your text isn’t sent to our servers, isn’t stored, and disappears when you close or refresh the page.
Editors disagree on edge cases such as hyphenated words, numbers with symbols, URLs and text in footnotes or text boxes. We count anything between spaces that contains a letter or number, which matches most editors on ordinary prose. Differences are usually a handful of words.
At a relaxed 140 words a minute, about 700 words. Fast speakers reach 160 or more, and pauses for slides or questions slow you down, so rehearse with a timer.
Closely, for plain text. X counts every link as 23 characters whatever its length, and some emoji and non-Latin characters as two, so posts with links or emoji can differ by a few characters.
There’s no magic number, and search engines don’t reward hitting one. Use the table to spot words you lean on too often. If a term is far above everything else, read those sentences aloud and vary the wording where it sounds repetitive.
Next, check whether it reads as human
Paste the same text into the AI detector to see which sentences read as machine-written, with a score you can explain to someone else.