How to count words and characters
- Type in the box or paste your text: an essay, a cover letter, a blog post or a caption.
- Read Words and Characters above the box, and Characters without spaces, Sentences, Paragraphs, Average word length, Reading time and Speaking time below it. Everything updates as you type.
- Check Most frequent words to spot repetition. Switch Hide common words off to include words such as "the" and "and", and use Show to list 10, 25 or 50 words.
- Under Length limit, pick a preset or enter a Custom limit in characters or words to see how much room is left. The bar turns amber near the limit and red when you go over.
- Press Copy text to copy your text, or Clear to empty the box and delete the saved draft.
How each number is counted
- Words are found with your browser's built-in Unicode word segmentation, so all scripts work and punctuation never counts as a word. Don't, well-known and 3.14 each count as one word. Chinese and Japanese are written without spaces, so each Chinese, hiragana or katakana character counts as one word, the convention most word processors use. Korean is counted by its spaces.
- Characters are what you see on screen: an emoji, a flag or an accented letter counts as one, even if it is stored as several code units. Spaces and line breaks are included. Characters without spaces leaves out every space, tab and line break.
- Sentences end at a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or line break. Abbreviations such as "Dr." can split a sentence, so treat this number as close rather than exact.
- Paragraphs are lines that contain text. Blank lines between paragraphs are ignored.
- Average word length is the number of letters and digits in all words divided by the number of words.
- Reading time divides the word count by 230 words per minute and speaking time by 130 words per minute. These are typical averages, not measurements of you: a 2019 review of reading research by Marc Brysbaert put adult silent reading of English non-fiction at roughly 238 words per minute, and presenters commonly speak at about 120 to 150 words per minute.
Word density and repeated words
The frequency table lists each word in lower case with the number of times it appears and its density, which is that count divided by the total word count, as a percentage. If an 800-word article uses "budget" 12 times, its density is 12 ÷ 800 = 1.5%. Hide common words leaves a short built-in list of English words such as articles, pronouns and prepositions out of the table so meaningful words stand out; hidden words and numbers still count towards the total. For Chinese and Japanese, the table groups characters into dictionary words (such as 北京 or コーヒー) when your browser supports it. A high density for one word is often a sign to vary your wording; there is no "ideal" keyword density.
Common length limits
| Text | Typical limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Page title (title tag) | about 50–60 characters | Search results cut titles by pixel width, not characters. |
| Meta description | about 150–160 characters | A guideline, not a rule; longer descriptions are simply shortened in results. |
| Short social media post | often 280 characters | Services count links and emoji differently; check the service itself. |
| Text message (SMS) | 160 characters | Only 70 if the message contains emoji or other non-basic characters. |
| Essays and applications | set by the brief | Usually a word limit; check whether the title and references count. |
Private by design
All counting happens in your browser; your text is never sent to a server. So you do not lose work, the draft is kept in your browser's local storage on this device until you press Clear. For other text helpers, try the AI detector or the plagiarism checker, write and preview formatted text in the Markdown editor, or browse more everyday tools.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages is 1,000 words?
Roughly two single-spaced or four double-spaced pages with a 12-point font and standard margins; the exact number depends on font, spacing and layout.
Do spaces count as characters?
Usually yes. Most character limits, including those on forms and social posts, count spaces and line breaks. That is why this counter shows both Characters (with spaces) and Characters without spaces; some publishers and translators price work by the second number.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes 21 seconds at 230 words per minute, and about 7 minutes 42 seconds to say aloud at 130 words per minute. Your own speed may be quite different, especially for technical or unfamiliar material.
Why is my word count different from my word processor's?
Tools use slightly different rules for hyphens, slashes, URLs and symbols such as "&": "and/or" is one word in some programs and two in others, and an emoji may count as one or two characters. The difference is usually tiny; when a limit really matters, check with the counter the form or publisher uses.
Does it work with Chinese, Japanese and other languages?
Yes. Each Chinese or Japanese character counts as a word, and other languages are split with Unicode rules. The list of common words that can be hidden is English only.
Updated