Word Counter
Paste or type any text to see its word count, character count, sentence count and an estimated reading time. Counts update as you type.
How to Use the Word Counter
- Type into the input box or paste your text from a document.
- Read the word, character and sentence counts in the result panel. They update on every keystroke.
- Use Copy or Save if you want to keep the statistics.
Example
- Input
- The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It barked twice!
- Output
- Words: 12 Characters: 61 Characters without spaces: 50 Sentences: 2 Reading time: 1 min
About the Word Counter
A word counter is useful whenever a piece of writing has a limit: school essays, job applications, meta descriptions, social posts or article briefs. Students, writers, editors and marketers use it to check length before submitting.
Words are counted by splitting text on spaces and line breaks, so hyphenated terms like "well-known" count as one word. Sentences are counted by splitting on full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, so abbreviations such as "e.g." can add extra sentences. Reading time assumes about 200 words per minute and is rounded up.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this word counter count words?
It splits your text wherever there is whitespace (spaces, tabs or line breaks) and counts the pieces. Numbers and hyphenated words each count as one word.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time is the word count divided by 200 words per minute, rounded up to the nearest whole minute.
Why is the sentence count sometimes wrong?
Sentences are detected by ".", "!" and "?". Abbreviations, decimals like 3.5 or ellipses can split a sentence into more than one, so treat the sentence count as an estimate.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
The calculation runs in your browser with JavaScript, and this tool does not send what you enter to a Usevanta server.
Is the word counter free?
Yes. It is free to use with no sign-up, and it works in modern desktop and mobile browsers.
Related Tools
All text tools →Count characters with and without spaces while you type.
Count how often each word appears in a text, with total and unique word counts.
Convert text to uppercase, lowercase, title case, sentence case or alternating case.
Collapse repeated spaces, trim lines and tidy up blank lines in any text.