About the Word Counter
This word counter tallies your text as you type: words, characters (with and without spaces), lines, sentences and paragraphs, plus an estimated reading time. It is handy for staying within length limits — meta descriptions, tweets, essays, form fields — or just understanding the shape of a piece of text.
Everything updates live and runs entirely in your browser, so even long documents are counted instantly and nothing is sent anywhere. Reading time is estimated at an average 200 words per minute.
How to use it
- Paste or type your text into the box.
- Watch the counts update live as you edit.
- Read words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time.
- Trim to fit a length limit if needed.
Examples
- Check a meta description stays within roughly 160 characters.
- Count the words in an essay against a target length.
- Estimate how long an article will take to read.
Frequently asked questions
How is a word counted?
A word is any run of non-whitespace characters, so words separated by spaces, tabs or newlines are each counted once.
How is reading time calculated?
It assumes an average reading speed of 200 words per minute and rounds to the nearest minute, with a minimum of one minute for any non-empty text.
What counts as a sentence or paragraph?
Sentences are counted by terminal punctuation (. ! ?). Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by a blank line.
Does my text get uploaded?
No. All counting happens live in your browser; nothing leaves the page.