Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs, plus keyword density and a readability grade.
Counts update live as you type. Nothing leaves your browser.
How to count words and characters online
Paste your text
Drop your draft into the text box. There is no button to press; counting starts the moment text appears.
Read the stat cards
A dozen counts, from words and characters to unique words, longest sentence, and a readability grade, appear at once below the box, with a keyword density ranking underneath.
Edit until the numbers fit
Keep writing or cutting directly in the box and watch every count update with each keystroke until you hit your target.
Why use this tool
A dozen statistics at once
Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, unique words, average word length, longest sentence, lines, and reading and speaking time sit side by side, so nothing needs re-running.
Keyword density and readability
The ten most-used words are ranked with their counts and share of the total, and a reading grade estimates the school level needed to follow the text.
Reading and speaking time estimates
Reading time is calculated at 200 words per minute and speaking time at 130, giving a realistic length for articles and speeches.
Recounts on every keystroke
The counters are live, which makes trimming a draft down to a strict limit a matter of deleting words and watching the number fall.
Both character counts that limits use
Characters are reported with and without spaces, matching the two ways platforms and style guides define their caps.
Your draft stays on your device
Counting is done locally in the browser with no upload, no account, and no cost, and it still works if you go offline after loading.
About this tool
This word counter reports a dozen live statistics for any text you paste or type. Words are counted as runs of characters separated by whitespace, sentences are detected by their ending punctuation (full stops, question marks, and exclamation marks), and paragraphs are blocks separated by blank lines. Characters are totalled both with and without spaces. Alongside the raw counts it reports unique words, average word length, the longest sentence in words, and the line count, and it estimates reading time at 200 words per minute and speaking time at 130 words per minute, the commonly used averages for silent reading and spoken delivery. Below the counts, a keyword density list ranks the words you use most, and a reading grade estimates the school level needed to follow the text using the Flesch-Kincaid formula.
Most visits are about a limit or a duration. Students trim essays toward a word cap, editors check that a meta description stays inside its character budget, social posts get cut to fit platform caps, and anyone preparing a talk or wedding speech can convert a script into minutes before rehearsing. Because every figure updates on each keystroke, you can edit in place and stop exactly when the number is right.
The text is analysed entirely in your browser and never transmitted, which matters when the draft is an unpublished article or a confidential document. If stray spacing is inflating your character count, run the text through the whitespace remover first. Need sample text at a known length to test a layout? The lorem ipsum generator produces an exact number of words on demand.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the word counter work?
- Paste or type your text into the box and every count updates live as you type. There is no button to press and nothing to submit.
- How is reading time calculated?
- Reading time assumes an average reading speed of 200 words per minute, and speaking time assumes 130 words per minute. These are typical averages, so treat them as estimates.
- What do keyword density and the reading grade show?
- Keyword density lists your ten most-used words with their counts and their share of the total, after skipping words of two letters or fewer and very common words like "the" and "and". The reading grade estimates the school grade level needed to follow the text using the Flesch-Kincaid formula, so a lower number reads more easily.
- Is my text uploaded anywhere?
- No. The counter runs entirely in your browser. Your text never leaves your device, never touches a server, and is not stored or logged.
- Is there a length limit?
- There is no hard limit. The counter handles very long documents comfortably, though extremely large pastes may take a moment to recount.
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