Text Counter
Live word, character, line, paragraph and sentence counts, plus reading time
What Is a Word Counter?
A text counter answers the simplest editorial question — how long is this — with exact numbers instead of guesses. It reports words, characters with and without spaces, lines, paragraphs and sentences, plus estimated reading time, refreshing live as you type or paste. The rules are transparent: words are runs of non-whitespace, paragraphs are blocks split by blank lines, sentences end on period, question, exclamation and ellipsis marks, and reading time divides words by 200 per minute with a one-minute floor for any non-empty text. That settles hard limits fast: a post capped at 280 characters, a meta description near 160, an essay brief at 1,000 words, a form field that silently truncates overflow.
Seven tiles that update together
- 📊 Word count from whitespace-separated tokens, the unit most limits use
- 🔤 Characters with spaces plus the denser no-spaces variant translators bill by
- 📝 Line, paragraph and sentence counts revealing the shape of the piece
- ⏱️ Reading estimate at a stated 200 words per minute, minimum one minute
- 🔄 Built-in sample passage and one-click copy for quick trials
Limits it helps you respect
- Fitting a post or headline inside a character ceiling without recounts
- Hitting a brief such as an 800-word article or fixed abstract
- Judging a draft as a two-minute skim or a ten-minute read
Note the sentence rule is punctuation-based, so abbreviations and decimals can shift the tally, and the estimate assumes average prose, not dense technical text. All math happens in your browser with zero network traffic — drafts and confidential copy stay on your device, never uploaded or stored.
Last updated · 2026-09-01
What counts as a word here
- Space-separated scripts split on whitespace; CJK text has none, so each character counts as a word-equivalent unit.
- Mixed documents sum both methods — English words plus CJK characters — matching how translation platforms bill.
- Sentences and paragraphs come from terminal punctuation and blank lines, not fixed lengths.
Counting words is easy — until Chinese arrives
Seven live counters
Words, characters with and without spaces, lines, paragraphs, sentences and reading time all update on every keystroke, so the totals you see are always the totals for the text in the box.
Reading time, estimated
A 200-words-per-minute reading speed turns any draft into minutes: size an article for a five-minute commute, a podcast script for a 20-minute slot, or a speech before you rehearse it.
Length limits at a glance
A tweet stops at 280 characters and a meta description at roughly 160. Watch both while you type, and keep sentence and paragraph counts honest as your copy grows.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?⌄
We use 200 words per minute, a commonly cited average adult silent-reading speed, rounded up to at least 1 minute for any non-empty text.
Does this count words the same way as Word or Google Docs?⌄
Very close — words are counted as whitespace-separated tokens, which is what most word processors use too. Small differences can appear around hyphenated words or numbers with punctuation.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?⌄
No. All counting happens locally as you type - the text is processed by your browser and never transmitted, so drafts and unpublished writing are safe to paste.
Why do my word count and my editor disagree?⌄
Tools define words differently: some count hyphenated pairs twice, some skip standalone numbers or symbols, CJK handling varies wildly. Characters are shown alongside words here so you can reconcile against whichever rule your platform publishes.