Word & Character Counter
Get a live word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count and estimated reading time as you type or paste text.
What this calculator does
Paste or type any text and this tool counts it live, no button click required — words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and an estimated reading time, all updating as you edit.
How each count is calculated
- Words — counted as whitespace-separated chunks of non-space characters, matching how most word processors count words.
- Characters — every character including spaces and punctuation; a second count also shows characters excluding spaces, which is closer to what character-limited fields (like SMS or some meta-description limits) actually count.
- Sentences — counted by sentence-ending punctuation (. ! ?), which is a reasonable approximation but can miscount abbreviations ("Dr.", "e.g.") as sentence breaks.
- Paragraphs — counted as blocks of text separated by a blank line.
- Reading time — estimated at 200 words per minute, a commonly used average adult silent-reading speed; actual reading speed varies by person and text complexity.
Common uses
Checking a piece of writing against a word-count requirement (an essay, an article brief, a cover letter limit), keeping a social media post or SMS within a character limit, checking a meta description or page title length for SEO purposes, or getting a rough sense of how long a piece of content will take readers to get through.
A note on accuracy
Sentence counting is an approximation — it can't perfectly distinguish a genuine sentence break from a period used in an abbreviation, decimal number, or ellipsis. For strict requirements (like an exact character-count limit on a form field), treat the character count as the reliable number and the sentence/paragraph counts as a useful estimate.
Privacy
Everything here runs in your browser as you type — no text you enter is sent anywhere or stored on a server.
Frequently asked questions
As chunks of text separated by whitespace, the same way most word processors count — so "well-known" counts as one word, but "well known" counts as two.
Sentence counting relies on punctuation like periods, question marks and exclamation points. It can't always tell the difference between a real sentence break and a period in an abbreviation (like "Mr." or "e.g."), so treat it as an estimate rather than an exact count.
Using an average reading speed of 200 words per minute, a commonly cited baseline for adult silent reading. Actual reading time varies by individual and by how dense or technical the text is.
No — the count runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing you type or paste is sent to a server.