Word and character counter
Count words, characters, sentences and reading time — live as you type. Runs in your browser.
Runs 100% in your browserHow to count words
- Paste or type. Enter your text in the box.
- Read the stats. Counts update live as you write or edit.
About counting words
Word and character counts matter for SEO meta descriptions, social posts with hard limits, essays with targets, and estimating how long an article takes to read. This counter updates instantly and keeps your text on your device — handy for sensitive drafts you'd rather not paste into a server-side tool.
Common length limits
Useful targets to write against:
- SEO title tag — about 60 characters before Google truncates it.
- Meta description — roughly 150–160 characters for a full snippet.
- X / Twitter post — 280 characters.
- SMS message — 160 characters before it splits into two.
- Google Ads headline — 30 characters per headline.
The character count with spaces is the one that matters for most of these limits, since platforms count every keystroke.
How a word is counted here
This counter treats a word as any unbroken run of non-whitespace characters — it splits your text on spaces, tabs and line breaks and counts the pieces. That's the same rule most word processors use, and it has a few consequences worth knowing: a hyphenated term like well-known counts as one word, an em-dash with spaces around it (word — word) does not join the two, and a URL or a string of code counts as a single word no matter how long it is. Numbers and standalone symbols separated by spaces each count as a word too.
Why two tools disagree on the count
It's normal for Microsoft Word, Google Docs and an online counter to report slightly different numbers for the same passage. The difference comes down to edge cases: whether a hyphenated compound is one word or two, whether trailing whitespace is trimmed, how em-dashes and ellipses are handled, and whether numbers or footnote markers count. For meeting a hard limit, pick one tool and stick with it — and leave a little headroom, because the platform that ultimately enforces the limit may count differently again.
How reading and speaking time work
Reading time assumes about 225 words per minute, a typical silent-reading pace for adults on everyday prose; speaking time uses 130 wpm, closer to a measured presentation or voiceover delivery. These are averages — dense technical writing reads slower, and a practiced speaker can run faster — so treat the figures as a planning estimate, not a stopwatch. For a script you'll read aloud, the speaking number is the one to size against your time slot.
Frequently asked questions
- Words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading and speaking time — all live as you type.
- Any run of non-whitespace characters separated by spaces or line breaks. This matches how word processors count.
- Reading time assumes ~225 words per minute and speaking time ~130 wpm — useful for blog posts, scripts and speeches.
- Yes — nothing is uploaded; counting happens entirely in your browser.