Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type. Includes reading time, speaking time and keyword density. Nothing is uploaded.
Related tools
All Text tools →This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to our servers, so there is nothing for us to store or see.
About the Word Counter
Paste or type text and see the counts update live: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading and speaking time.
Character limits are the usual reason people need this. A meta description gets truncated in search results around 160 characters, a post on X allows 280, and academic and professional word counts are rarely negotiable. The counts here follow the same rules those platforms use: characters are counted as Unicode code points, so an emoji counts once rather than as the two units JavaScript stores it in.
Keyword density is included for anyone writing for search. It is worth treating as a sanity check rather than a target — deliberately hitting a density figure produces text that reads badly, and search engines have not rewarded that for well over a decade.
How to use the Word Counter
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Paste or type your text
Enter text into the box, or drop a .txt file onto it. Every count updates as you type.
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Read the counts
Words, characters, characters excluding spaces, sentences and paragraphs are shown together, along with estimated reading and speaking time.
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Check your keyword density
The most frequent words are listed below the counts with their share of the total, ignoring common filler words.
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Copy your text back out
Your text stays in the box. Copy returns it to your clipboard unchanged when you are done.
Frequently asked questions
How is a word defined here?
A word is any run of characters separated by whitespace, which is the same rule Microsoft Word and Google Docs apply. A hyphenated term such as well-known counts as one word, and a number counts as a word. This is what almost every word-count requirement assumes.
Why does my character count differ from another tool?
Usually because of emoji or accented characters. Many tools count JavaScript string units, so a single emoji registers as two. This tool counts Unicode code points, so it registers as one — matching how X, Bluesky and most character limits actually count.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time assumes 238 words per minute, the average for adults reading English prose from a screen, taken from published reading-rate research. Speaking time assumes 130 words per minute, a typical measured presentation pace. Both are estimates and vary with material and audience.
Is my text sent to your server?
No. Everything is counted in your browser as you type, and nothing is transmitted or stored. People paste unpublished drafts, confidential documents and coursework into word counters, and none of that should ever reach someone else server.
Does it count words in languages without spaces?
Not accurately. Chinese, Japanese and Thai do not separate words with spaces, so the word count will be misleading for those scripts — though the character count remains correct and is usually the meaningful measure there anyway.