Free Word Counter

It counts every chunk of text between spaces or line breaks. So well-known, don't, 3.14 and a web address each count as one word. A dash or symbol typed with spaces on both sides also counts as a word, and empty lines add nothing.

There are two counts. Characters includes every letter, space, punctuation mark and line break, while Chars (no spaces) leaves out all spaces, tabs and line breaks. Most limits, such as a 160-character text message or a meta description, count spaces, so use the first number.

Reading time divides your word count by 200 words per minute and rounds up. Under one minute shows as less than 1 min read, 201 words shows 2 min and 1,000 words shows 5 min. Dense or technical writing usually takes longer to read.

About two pages single-spaced or four pages double-spaced, in a 12-point font with normal margins. Page counts change with font, spacing and headings. This tool doesn't count pages, so use the word total with that rule of thumb.

A sentence is counted at every period, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space. Abbreviations add extra ones: Mr. Smith met Dr. Jones at 3 p.m. today counts as 4. Decimals like 3.14 don't, and text with no end mark counts as one sentence.

Paragraphs are split by blank lines, not single line breaks. Three lines pasted with one break each count as one paragraph. Put an empty line between paragraphs, or paste text from a document that already has paragraph spacing.

Characters are counted the way JavaScript stores text, so most emoji count as 2 and joined emoji, like a family, can count as 8. Letters, accents, spaces and Chinese or Japanese characters count as 1 each. Expect a higher total when your text has emoji.

Words, characters and sentences work for any language that puts spaces between words. Chinese and Japanese have no spaces, so a run of text counts as one word. Unique words, average length and Top Words keep only a to z, digits, apostrophes and hyphens, so café reads as caf and non-Latin words are skipped.

Unique words is how many different words you used, ignoring capitals and one-letter words. Top Words lists up to 10 words that appear at least twice, most used first, with a count. It skips 87 common English filler words like the, and and of.

No limit is set. You can paste a full thesis or book chapter. Counts rerun on every edit, and in our Node test 160,000 words took about 70 milliseconds per run, so very long texts may feel slower to type into.

No. Your text is counted in your browser and isn't saved, so reloading the page clears it. On the live site, Google Analytics counts each edit and each Copy click, never your words or the counts.