Word Counter

Word counting sounds trivial until a deadline depends on it. University essays are marked down when they run 10% over the stated limit, journal abstracts are rejected outright above 250 words, and a Google meta description that spills past roughly 155 characters simply gets truncated in the search results. The Word Counter gives you a live tally of words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type or paste, so you always know exactly where you stand against whatever limit you have been handed.

Students, copywriters, translators paid by the word, journalists filing to a fixed column length, and social media managers squeezing a message into a platform cap all rely on an accurate count rather than an estimate. The counter also estimates reading time using an average adult pace of around 200 words per minute, which is handy when you are scripting a talk, a voiceover or a newsletter and need to know whether it will run two minutes or six.

Everything happens in your browser. The text you paste is never uploaded, logged or stored on a server, so drafts covered by an embargo, an NDA or simple professional discretion stay on your own machine. There is nothing to install and no account to create: open the page, drop in your text, and read the numbers.

How to use the Word Counter

1. Type directly into the text area, or paste an existing draft from your word processor, email client or CMS.
2. Watch the counters update instantly as you edit; no button press is needed.
3. Compare the word or character figure against the limit you have been given.
4. Trim or expand your text in place until the number lands where you want it.
5. Use the copy button to send the finished text back to wherever you are publishing it.

Examples

• A postgraduate student pastes a 2,300-word literature review to check it fits a 2,000-word cap, then cuts two paragraphs until the counter reads 1,978.
• A freelance copywriter invoicing at a per-thousand-word rate confirms the delivered article contains 1,450 words before sending the invoice.
• A marketer drafting a LinkedIn post watches the character count to stay under the point where the platform hides the rest behind a "see more" link.

Frequently asked questions

How are words actually counted?

The tool splits your text on any run of whitespace, so hyphenated compounds such as "state-of-the-art" count as one word and a number like 1,250 counts as one word. This matches the behaviour of Microsoft Word and Google Docs closely enough for academic and editorial limits.

Does it count words in a language other than English?

Yes for any space-separated script, including most European languages. Languages written without spaces, such as Chinese or Japanese, are better measured with the character count than the word count.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. The calculation runs in JavaScript inside your browser tab. Closing the tab discards the text entirely.

Why does the reading time differ from other tools?

Reading speed assumptions vary. We use 200 words per minute, a common figure for adult silent reading of general prose. Technical material is slower; scripted speech is usually closer to 130 words per minute.

Read our related guide for more on getting the most from the Word Counter.

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