Word Counter & Character Count
Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs instantly. Includes reading time estimates.
Words
0
Characters
0
Chars (no spaces)
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0
Reading Time
—
at 200 words/min
Word count, reading time, and editorial hygiene
Counts differ by locale hyphenation rules and what you treat as a token. Use this tool for essays, subtitles, and proposal limits; pair with the case converter when normalizing headings.
Reading-time heuristics (e.g. 200 wpm) vary by audience and content density—tune constants for your style guide.
Related tools
These free tools pair well with this page — open them in a new tab to finish your workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are words counted?
Words are counted by splitting text on whitespace and punctuation. Hyphenated words (e.g., "well-known") are typically counted as one word. Numbers and abbreviations each count as one word.
How is reading time estimated?
Reading time is estimated based on an average adult reading speed of approximately 200–250 words per minute. The estimate assumes silent reading of plain prose.
Does the counter include characters with or without spaces?
Both counts are shown: characters including spaces, and characters excluding spaces. Use the one appropriate for your context (e.g., Twitter counts all characters including spaces).
Are sentences counted accurately?
Sentences are counted by detecting sentence-ending punctuation (., !, ?). Edge cases like abbreviations (e.g., "Dr.") may slightly affect the count, but the result is a good approximation.
Does it count paragraphs?
Yes. Paragraphs are counted by detecting blocks of text separated by blank lines. Single line breaks without a blank line between them are treated as the same paragraph.
Can I use this for SEO or social media character limits?
Yes. The character count (with spaces) is useful for checking against limits like Twitter's 280 characters or meta description limits (~155–160 characters).