Word Counter and Character Counter

Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in your text. Includes reading time and speaking time estimates.

Word Counter and Character Counter tool

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Example

Input: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Result: Words 9, Characters 44, Characters (no spaces) 36, Sentences 1, Paragraphs 1, Unique Words 8, Reading Time 1 min

Words are split on whitespace, and "The" and "the" count as one unique word. Reading time is words divided by 200 words per minute, rounded up to whole minutes.

Reading and Speaking Time by Word Count

WordsReading time (200 wpm)Speaking time (150 wpm)
1001 min1 min
2502 min2 min
5003 min4 min
7504 min5 min
1,0005 min7 min
1,5008 min10 min
2,00010 min14 min
2,50013 min17 min
3,00015 min20 min
5,00025 min34 min

Rounded up to the next whole minute, as the tool does.

  1. Paste or type your text into the large text area.
  2. Watch the word, character, sentence, paragraph, line and unique word counts update as you type.
  3. Check the reading time and speaking time shown with the results.
  4. Use the character count with or without spaces, depending on your limit.
  5. Click the copy button on any card to copy that number.

How Word Count and Reading Time Are Worked Out

This word counter counts the words, characters, sentences and paragraphs in your text as you type. It also gives a reading time at 200 words per minute and a speaking time at 150 words per minute. So a 1,000-word article takes about 5 minutes to read and 7 minutes to say out loud.

A word is any group of characters between spaces that holds at least one letter or number. A lone dash or ampersand is not counted, but "well-known" and "don't" each count as one word. A sentence ends at a period, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis followed by a space. That way a number like 3.14 is not split in two. Paragraphs are blocks of text with a blank line between them.

You get two character counts: one with spaces and one without. Use the first for hard limits, such as a 280-character post on X or a 160-character meta description. Some essay and translation briefs quote the second. The Unique Words card counts each word once, whatever its case, which helps you spot words you lean on too often.

The text stays in your browser, so it is fine to paste a draft that is not public yet. For a closer look at style, run the same text through the Readability Score Calculator. To see which letters appear most, try the Letter Counter.

Frequently Asked Questions

About 5 minutes, based on the 200 words per minute this tool uses for silent reading. Reading the same text out loud takes about 7 minutes at 150 words per minute. A faster reader at 250 words per minute gets through it in 4 minutes. The tool rounds both times up to the next whole minute.
Yes. Words are split only at spaces and line breaks, so "mother-in-law", "don't" and "e-mail" each count as one word. Numbers such as 2026 count as words too. A symbol standing on its own, like "-" or "&" between two spaces, is not counted as a word, but it still adds to the character count.
Small differences are normal because every editor has its own rules. They can treat standalone dashes, symbols, web addresses, footnotes and text boxes in different ways. This tool counts any group of characters between spaces that contains a letter or a number. If you need to match a specific count, use the same tool your teacher or client uses.
A paragraph is a block of text with a blank line before and after it. A line ends at every line break. A shopping list of 10 items, one per line with no blank lines between them, counts as 1 paragraph and 10 lines. Two blocks separated by a blank line count as 2 paragraphs.
Use the count with spaces, because platforms count spaces as characters. Keep in mind that this tool counts most emoji as 2 characters, as many systems do, while some platforms have their own rules for emoji and links. Leave a few characters spare if your post is close to the limit.

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