Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time in real time.
About the counters
- Reading time assumes ~225 words per minute (average adult).
- Speaking time assumes ~130 words per minute.
- Paragraphs are split by blank lines. Sentences by
. ! ?
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time estimated?
We assume an average adult reading speed of about 230 words per minute for prose. Dense technical material will read slower, while light copy may read faster.
What counts as a word?
Any contiguous run of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace. Hyphenated terms like "state-of-the-art" count as a single word.
Does it work for non-English languages?
Yes for any language separated by whitespace. Languages that do not use spaces, like Chinese or Japanese, are best measured by character rather than word count.
Is there a maximum text length?
The tool runs in your browser so the limit is whatever your device can handle smoothly. Tens of thousands of words work fine on a modern laptop or phone.
Word count targets across formats, from practice not theory
Most writing formats have settled into measurable norms. SEO-oriented blog posts cluster around 1,000-2,000 words for competitive topics, while studies of top-ranking pages repeatedly find averages near 1,400... not because Google counts words, but because thorough coverage tends to be long. News briefs run 300-500; feature journalism 1,500-3,500. Academic abstracts are typically capped at 150-300 words by journals. Novels span 70,000-100,000 words (literary agents treat 80,000 as the adult-fiction sweet spot), novellas 17,500-40,000, short stories under 7,500. Cover letters should stay under 400 words; nobody has ever complained a cover letter was too short.
Counts as editing instruments
- Average sentence length (words divided by sentences) is the fastest readability proxy: 15-20 reads comfortably, above 25 demands splitting. Plain-language guidelines for public-facing text target the lower end.
- Paragraph density matters on screens: web paragraphs of 40-70 words hold attention where print tolerated 150.
- A 10% trim pass... cutting a 1,000-word draft to 900 by deleting hedges and redundancies... improves almost any text, and the live count turns it into a concrete game.
Speech runs on a different clock
Spoken delivery averages 120-150 words per minute for presentations (conversational speech is faster, but slides and pauses slow you down). A 5-minute talk is therefore a 600-750 word script, a 20-minute conference slot about 2,600... and discovering this with a counter before rehearsal is considerably cheaper than discovering it on stage.
Why two counters disagree about the same text
Paste one document into three counters and you may get three numbers. The variance has identifiable sources: hyphenated compounds (one word or three), numbers and dates ("15 June 2026" counts as three here), em-dash-joined phrases, URLs and email addresses (one token each, by most rules), and contractions. Word processors add their own conventions... some count text in footnotes and captions, some do not, which is how a thesis can satisfy one counter and violate the institutional one. For anything with a hard limit, the only number that matters is the one produced by the gatekeeper's own counting rules; everywhere else, consistency with yourself beats agreement between tools.
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