Word & Character Counter
Type or paste your text to count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs instantly. See the reading time, the words you use most and how your text fits common character limits.
Keyword density
The words and phrases you use most, with how often they appear.
| # | Keyword | Count | Density |
|---|
Character limits
How your whole text fits common limits. Bars turn amber near the limit and red when you go over.
Set a word or character goal to track your progress.
Free Online Word Counter and Character Counter
Need to know how long your text is? This free word counter shows the number of words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type. It also shows how long your text takes to read aloud or silently, which words you use most and whether your text fits common character limits such as an X post, an SEO title or a meta description. Type or paste your text into the box and the counts update instantly. There’s no sign-up, and your text never leaves your browser.
What is a word counter?
A word counter counts the words in a piece of text, along with related numbers like characters and sentences. Students use it to check essays against a word limit, bloggers to check post length, and marketers to keep ad copy and social posts short enough. This tool is a word counter, a character counter and a letter counter in one.
How to count words and characters
- Add your text. Type in the box, paste text from any document, or click Open file to load a .txt or .md file. You can also drag a text file onto the box.
- Read the main counts. Words, Characters, Sentences and Paragraphs appear at the top and update as you type.
- Check a single part. Select a sentence or paragraph in the box and the tool shows the word and character count of just that selection.
- See more stats. Below the box you’ll find Characters without spaces, Letters, Unique words, Average word length, Reading time and Speaking time.
- Review your keywords. Scroll to Keyword density to see the words and phrases you repeat most often.
- Compare with limits. Check the Character limits bars, or set My goal to track progress toward a target length.
Features
Live word, character, sentence and paragraph counts
Every number updates as you type. The counter stays fast even with 100,000 words or more, so you can paste a whole chapter or report.
Count a selection
Select any part of your text to see a separate count for it, such as “Selection: 12 words, 64 characters”. It’s an easy way to check one paragraph or one answer inside a longer draft.
Reading time and speaking time
Reading time is based on an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a typical pace for speeches and presentations.
Keyword density
The Keyword density table lists your 10 most-used words with how many times each one appears and its share of the text. Switch between 1 word, 2 words and 3 words to find repeated phrases as well as single words. Keep Ignore common words turned on to skip filler words like “the”, “and” and “of”, so the words that matter stand out. For phrases, the table shows those that appear at least twice.
Density is calculated as the number of times a word or phrase appears, multiplied by the number of words in it, divided by the total word count. For example, a 2-word phrase that appears 3 times in a 300-word text has a density of 2%.
Character limits
The Character limits section compares your text with common limits:
- X (Twitter) post: 280 characters
- SEO title: 60 characters
- Meta description: 160 characters
- SMS message: 160 characters
- YouTube title: 100 characters
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters
- LinkedIn post: 3,000 characters
Each bar turns amber when you’re close to the limit and red when you go over, and shows how many characters are left. Some platforms count certain things differently (X counts every link as 23 characters), so treat the bars as a close guide.
A word or character goal
Type a number into My goal and choose words or characters. A progress bar shows how far along you are and how much is left.
Copy, clear and undo
Copy puts your whole text on the clipboard. Clear empties the box, and an Undo button appears for a few seconds in case you cleared it by mistake.
How the counting works
Different tools count text in slightly different ways. Here’s how this one counts:
- Words: groups of characters separated by spaces or line breaks that contain at least one letter or number. “Well-known”, “don’t”, numbers and links each count as one word. Emoji and symbols on their own don’t count. Chinese, Japanese and Thai text is split into words automatically.
- Characters: every character, including spaces, punctuation and line breaks. Each emoji counts as one, even a flag or family emoji.
- Characters without spaces: the same count with all spaces, tabs and line breaks removed.
- Letters: letters only, without numbers, spaces or punctuation.
- Sentences: text ending in a period, question mark or exclamation point, or at the end of a line. Common abbreviations such as Mr., Mrs., Dr., e.g., i.e. and U.S. don’t end a sentence.
- Paragraphs: each line that contains text. Empty lines between paragraphs are ignored, so pressing Enter once or twice gives the same result.
- Unique words: the number of different words, ignoring capital letters.
Tips for using a word counter
- Text copied from a PDF or email often has stray spaces and line breaks that change the paragraph count. Tidy it up first with our Text Cleaner.
- Check Keyword density before you publish. If one word is far ahead of the rest, swap a few uses for a synonym.
- Write SEO titles and meta descriptions right in the box and watch the Character limits bars.
- Use Speaking time to trim a speech or video script to fit your time slot.
- Need to count only the numbers in some text? Try the Digit Counter.
Is my text private?
Yes. The word counter runs entirely in your browser, and your text is never sent to our server or anyone else. Your text and settings are saved in your browser so they’re still there when you come back. Click Clear to empty the box and remove the saved text.
Frequently asked questions
Is this word counter free?
Yes. It’s completely free with no sign-up and no limit on how much text you count.
How are words counted?
A word is any group of characters separated by spaces or line breaks that contains at least one letter or number. Hyphenated words and contractions such as “well-known” and “don’t” count as one word, and so do numbers and links.
Does the character count include spaces?
The Characters count includes spaces, punctuation and line breaks. If you need the count without spaces, use Characters without spaces, which sits just below the text box.
Can I count the words in only part of my text?
Yes. Select the part you want to check, and the tool shows the word and character count for just that selection under the text box.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time assumes an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute. Speaking time assumes 150 words per minute, a typical pace for speeches and presentations.
What does keyword density mean?
Keyword density is how often a word or phrase appears compared with the total number of words. It’s calculated as the number of times it appears, multiplied by the number of words in the phrase, divided by the total word count. Turn on Ignore common words to hide filler words like “the” and “and”.
Does it work with other languages?
Yes. It counts characters and words in any language, including Spanish, French, Hindi and Arabic. Chinese, Japanese and Thai text, which doesn’t use spaces between words, is split into words automatically.
Can I count the words in a file?
Yes. Click Open file or drag a plain text (.txt) or Markdown (.md) file onto the text box. For a Word document or PDF, copy the text and paste it into the box.