Live counts for words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and lines, plus estimated reading and speaking time and the words you lean on most.

How to use this tool

Type or paste your text.
Every count updates as you go — there is no button to press.
Check the most repeated words panel to catch phrases you have overused.

Why the counts matter

Different platforms cap different things, and the distinction is worth knowing:

Characters — what social platforms, meta descriptions, and SMS count. Meta descriptions are usually truncated around 155–160 characters; page titles around 60.
Characters without spaces — how most translation and typesetting work is quoted.
Words — what essays, articles, and academic submissions specify.

Reading time assumes 225 words per minute, a reasonable average for adult silent reading. Speaking time uses 130 wpm, which is a comfortable presentation pace — useful for timing a talk or a video script.

Tips

Aim for a variety of sentence lengths. If your sentence count is low relative to word count, your sentences are long, which is harder to read.
The repeated-words panel ignores words under four letters, so it surfaces real repetition rather than "the" and "and".
Paste plain text rather than rich text if you want accurate counts — invisible formatting characters can inflate the character count.

Related tools

Case converter — fix capitalisation across a whole document
Text diff checker — see what changed between two drafts
Line sorter & deduplicator — clean up lists
Slug generator — turn your headline into a URL

FAQ

Is my text stored or uploaded?

No. Everything is counted in your browser as you type. Nothing is sent over the network and nothing is saved when you close the tab.

How is a word counted?

Any run of non-whitespace characters counts as one word, which matches how word processors count. A hyphenated term like "state-of-the-art" counts as one word.

Why does my count differ slightly from Microsoft Word?

Word applies extra rules around footnotes, text boxes, headers, and hyphenation. For plain prose the two agree; for complex documents expect a small difference.

How long is a 500-word article?

Roughly two and a bit minutes of reading, or about a page and a half double-spaced. Most blog posts that rank well run considerably longer, but length only helps when the content justifies it.

Does it count characters for Twitter/X?

The character count here is a straight character count. Some platforms count certain emoji and links differently, so treat it as a close estimate rather than an exact match.

Word Counter