Word Counter
Paste or type and the counts update live. Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and the keyword frequency that tells you which word you have leaned on too hard.
What counts as a word
This tool splits on whitespace, which is the convention almost every word processor uses. So "state of the art" is four words and "state-of-the-art" is one. Numbers count as words. That matches what an editor or a client means when they ask for 800 words.
Character counts are given two ways. With spaces is what social platforms and SMS limits use. Without spaces is what most publications mean when they specify a character count, and what typesetters work from.
Reading time
Reading time here assumes 238 words per minute, which comes from a large meta analysis of silent reading in English by adults. That is meaningfully lower than the 250 or 300 many sites assume, and it produces estimates closer to how long people actually take.
Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, a comfortable presentation pace. Conversational speech runs faster, around 150, but people who read prepared material aloud at that speed sound rushed. If you are timing a talk, 130 is the safer planning figure.
Lengths worth knowing
| Where | Limit or convention |
|---|---|
| Post on X | 280 characters on a standard account |
| SMS | 160 characters for a single message |
| Meta title for search | roughly 55 to 60 characters before truncation |
| Meta description | roughly 150 to 160 characters |
| Email subject line | under 50 characters shows fully on most phones |
| Blog post that ranks | commonly 1,200 to 2,000 words, though depth beats length |
The average sentence length figure
This is the most useful number here and the one people ignore. Readable business writing tends to average 15 to 20 words per sentence. Above 25 and readers start losing the thread, particularly on a phone. Below 10 across a whole piece and it begins to feel choppy.
Aim for variation rather than a target. A long sentence followed by a short one reads well. Twelve long sentences in a row do not, regardless of what the average says.
Most used words
Common words such as the, and, of are filtered out, so what you see is the vocabulary you are actually leaning on. If one term appears far more than everything else, you have either found your subject or found a word you have repeated without noticing. Both are worth knowing before you publish.
Common questions
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything runs inside your browser. The text never leaves your device, is not logged, and is gone when you close the tab. You can disconnect from the internet and the tool still works.
How is a sentence counted?
By counting full stops, question marks and exclamation marks that end a run of text. Abbreviations such as Dr. or e.g. will be miscounted as sentence endings, so treat the figure as close rather than exact in text with many abbreviations.
Why is your reading time longer than other tools give?
Because most tools assume 250 to 300 words a minute and the research on adult silent reading puts the average closer to 238. The lower figure produces estimates that match reality better, particularly for anything technical.
Does it work with Hindi or Gujarati text?
Word and character counting work for any script, since they are based on whitespace and character position. The keyword frequency handles Devanagari as well as Latin. Reading time estimates are based on English research and will be less accurate for other languages.
Is there a limit on how much text I can paste?
No hard limit. Very long documents, above roughly 100,000 words, may make live updating feel slow, since the count runs on every keystroke.