Count Words, Characters, and Sentences
Paste or type your text below. All statistics update instantly as you write.
Keyword Density
Top 10 words (3+ letters)
Readability
Flesch-Kincaid analysis
Character Breakdown
Composition of your text
Word Length Distribution
How long are your words?
Character Limits
About This Word Counter
Word Counter is a free online text analysis tool that counts words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and lines in real time. It also estimates reading time (at 200 words per minute) and speaking time (at 150 words per minute), and tracks your text against character limits for Twitter/X (280), Instagram (2,200), LinkedIn (63,206), and meta descriptions (160).
It does not require an account, installation, or internet connection after the page loads. All counting runs locally in your browser. No text is uploaded or stored.
How It Works
Paste or type text into the editor. Statistics update instantly as you write. Words are counted by splitting on whitespace. Sentences are detected by terminal punctuation (periods, exclamation marks, question marks). Paragraphs are text blocks separated by blank lines.
Readability Analysis
The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score rates text on a 0-100 scale. Higher scores indicate easier reading: 90-100 is very easy (5th grade), 60-70 is standard (8th-9th grade), and 0-30 is very difficult (college graduate level). The grade level estimates the US school grade needed to understand the text. Both metrics use average sentence length and average syllable count per word.
Example
For the input text:
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It was a bright, sunny afternoon."
The tool returns: 16 words, 80 characters, 65 characters (no spaces), 2 sentences, 1 paragraph, and an estimated reading time of 5 seconds.
Common Use Cases
- Academic writing -- track essay length against assignment word limits (250, 500, 1,000, or 2,000 words)
- Blog posts and SEO content -- check whether an article meets a target length for search ranking (typically 800-2,000 words)
- Social media posts -- verify your caption fits within the Twitter/X 280-character or Instagram 2,200-character limit
- Meta descriptions -- keep descriptions under 160 characters so they display fully in search results
- Speech and presentation prep -- estimate delivery time (a 1,500-word speech takes about 10 minutes at 150 WPM)
Word Counter FAQ
How does this word counter work?
Paste or type text into the editor. The tool splits your text on whitespace to count words, counts all characters (with and without spaces), detects sentences by punctuation marks (. ! ?), and identifies paragraphs by blank lines. All processing runs in your browser -- nothing is uploaded.
Is a word counter the same as a character counter?
No. A word counter counts words separated by spaces. A character counter counts every individual character, including spaces and punctuation. This tool provides both counts simultaneously.
What is the Twitter/X character limit?
Twitter/X allows up to 280 characters per post. This tool shows a live progress bar so you can see exactly how close you are to the limit as you type.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, which is the average adult silent reading speed for English text. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a typical pace for presentations.
What counts as a sentence?
The tool counts sentences by detecting period (.), exclamation mark (!), and question mark (?) characters. Abbreviations like "Dr." or "U.S." may inflate the count slightly. If your text has no terminal punctuation, it counts as one sentence.
Can I use this for essay word limits?
Yes. Set a word goal using the goal tracker, and the progress bar shows your percentage in real time. Common presets (250, 500, 1,000, 2,000 words) are available for quick selection.
Does this tool store my text?
No. All counting happens locally in your browser using JavaScript. No text is sent to any server. Refreshing the page clears everything.
What is the Instagram caption character limit?
Instagram captions allow up to 2,200 characters. This tool tracks your character count against that limit with a visual progress bar.
How are readability scores calculated?
The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score uses the formula: 206.835 - 1.015 x (words/sentences) - 84.6 x (syllables/words). The Grade Level formula is: 0.39 x (words/sentences) + 11.8 x (syllables/words) - 15.59. Both rely on average sentence length and syllable density. Results are most accurate for English text of at least a few sentences.
Privacy & Limitations
- All calculations run entirely in your browser -- nothing is sent to any server.
- Results are estimates and may vary based on actual conditions.
Related Tools
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- TikTok Hashtag Generator -- Generate trending TikTok hashtags by niche
- Palindrome Checker -- Check if text reads the same forwards and backwards
- Anagram Checker -- Check if two words or phrases are anagrams
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Word Counter FAQ
How does this word counter work?
Paste or type text into the editor. The tool splits your text on whitespace to count words, counts all characters (with and without spaces), detects sentences by punctuation marks (. ! ?), and identifies paragraphs by blank lines. All processing runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Is a word counter the same as a character counter?
No. A word counter counts words separated by spaces. A character counter counts every individual character, including spaces and punctuation. This tool provides both counts simultaneously.
What is the Twitter/X character limit?
Twitter/X allows up to 280 characters per post. This tool shows a live progress bar so you can see exactly how close you are to the limit as you type.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, which is the average adult silent reading speed for English text. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a typical pace for presentations.
What counts as a sentence?
The tool counts sentences by detecting period (.), exclamation mark (!), and question mark (?) characters. Abbreviations like Dr. or U.S. may inflate the count slightly. If your text has no terminal punctuation, it counts as one sentence.
Can I use this for essay word limits?
Yes. Set a word goal using the goal tracker, and the progress bar shows your percentage in real time. Common presets (250, 500, 1,000, 2,000 words) are available for quick selection.
Does this tool store my text?
No. All counting happens locally in your browser using JavaScript. No text is sent to any server. Refreshing the page clears everything.
What is the Instagram caption character limit?
Instagram captions allow up to 2,200 characters. This tool tracks your character count against that limit with a visual progress bar.