Word and character counter

How to count words and characters

Type or paste your text into the box. Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines, unique words and reading time appear next to it and update with every keystroke. It's handy for essays with a word limit, meta descriptions, social posts, ad copy and other text with a length cap.

Reading time

Reading time assumes about 200 words per minute, a common figure for adult reading speed. Use it to size blog posts and scripts for your readers.

No sign-up, no upload

Many online editors save your drafts. This counter keeps everything in the browser tab. Close the tab and the text is gone, which suits private or unpublished writing.

Common length limits

A few limits come up often: a meta description should stay under about 155 characters, an X post allows 280 characters, a LinkedIn post 3,000, and many college essays 650 words. Paste your draft and trim until the counter fits the limit you are writing for.

Before you start

Word Counter works on the text or values you enter. Output: Statistics. The settings appear before anything runs, so you can check them first. Your original file is never changed.

The value you enter is processed in your browser. Still test the output where it will be used. Clean formatting does not prove the data is safe or correct.

Keep the original until you have opened and checked the result. The work happens in this browser tab, so the size you can handle depends on your device's memory, your browser and the file itself.

How to use the word and character counter

1. Type or paste your text into the box.
2. Watch the counts update as you type.
3. Check the word and character counts against your limit.
4. Edit your text until it fits.