Word Counter Online

Useful for anything with a length requirement — an essay with a word limit, a meta description with a character cap, a Twitter/X post, a cover letter. This counts words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, and paragraphs as you type, and estimates reading time.

How it works

Just paste or type text into the box. All the counts update live, no need to click a button. Reading time is estimated based on an average adult reading speed (around 200-250 words per minute), so treat it as a rough guide rather than an exact figure.

What it counts

• Words — split on whitespace, so it counts what you'd expect
• Characters — shown both with and without spaces, useful for platforms with strict character limits like meta descriptions (roughly 150-160 characters) or SMS
• Sentences — counted by terminal punctuation (. ! ?)
• Paragraphs — counted by line breaks
• Reading time — an estimate, not a guarantee; dense or technical text takes longer to read than the average

FAQ

Why does my character count seem off? Check whether you're looking at the "with spaces" or "without spaces" figure — platforms differ in which one they enforce. Twitter/X, for instance, counts characters including spaces.

Is this accurate for languages other than English? Word splitting works well for space-separated languages. Languages without spaces between words (like Japanese or Chinese) will show a less meaningful word count, though character count still works correctly.

Does it save or store what I type? No — nothing is sent anywhere or saved. It's all processed locally as you type.