Word & Character Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and reading time as you type.
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Words
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Characters
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Characters (no spaces)
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Sentences
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Paragraphs
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Avg words / sentence
Reading time
~0 min
Speaking time
~0 min
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time as you type or paste — with the character count shown both with and without spaces, since different platforms count differently.
Written for the situations where the limit is a hard constraint: an essay with a word range, a meta description that gets truncated, a social post that won't send, an application form that silently cuts you off.
Limits worth knowing
| Where | Limit | Counted in |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | ~60 characters | Pixel width, roughly 60 chars |
| Meta description | ~155 characters | Pixel width, roughly 155 chars |
| X / Twitter post | 280 characters | Characters, links count as 23 |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters | Characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters | Characters, truncated at ~210 in feed |
| SMS | 160 characters | Per segment, 70 if any emoji |
| Google Ads headline | 30 characters | Characters |
| Email subject line | ~50 characters | Before mobile truncation |
Reading time, and how it's estimated
The conventional figure is 200–250 words per minute for adult silent reading of general text, which is what the estimate here uses. It's a reasonable average and a poor prediction for any individual piece.
Technical material, anything with code samples, and text a reader intends to act on all run far slower — 100 words per minute is closer for dense documentation. Narrative prose runs faster. Treat the estimate as a rough signal of length, which is what readers use it for anyway.
Why two tools disagree about your word count
- Hyphenated words: 'well-known' is one word to some counters and two to others.
- Numbers and standalone symbols may or may not be counted as words.
- Contractions are almost always one word, but em-dashes without spaces can join two words into one.
- Headings, captions, footnotes and bibliographies are included here but often excluded by academic word limits — check the brief.
- Character counts differ most: some platforms count a string's length in UTF-16 code units, so an emoji counts as two.
Frequently asked questions
- How is reading time calculated?
- At roughly 200–250 words per minute, the standard average for adult silent reading. Dense technical writing realistically runs at half that speed.
- Does the character count include spaces?
- Both counts are shown. Social platforms and SMS count spaces; some form fields and design tools don't, so it's worth checking which limit you're up against.
- How many words is a typical page?
- About 250 words double-spaced or 500 single-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman. It varies with font, margins and spacing, so a word count is a more reliable target than a page count.
- Why does my word count differ from Microsoft Word's?
- Counters disagree on hyphenated words, standalone numbers and symbols. A difference of a percent or two on a long document is normal; if a hard limit is close, check against the tool that will actually assess it.
- Does an emoji count as one character?
- It depends on the platform. Many count string length in UTF-16 code units, where most emoji take two — and emoji with skin-tone or gender modifiers can take several more.
- Is my text sent anywhere?
- No. Counting happens in your browser as you type, so drafts and confidential documents stay on your device.