Free Word Counter and Character Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs with reading and speaking time estimates — instantly, in your browser.
Document total
With spaces
Without whitespace
Average: 19.6 words/sentence
Longest: 48 words
Estimate @ 225 WPM
Estimate @ 130 WPM
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Scan your draft with our multi-model classifier to detect AI-generated phrasing.
How to use the word counter
- Add your text. Type, paste, or upload a plain-text file. Every statistic updates as you write.
- Review your counts. Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and reading and speaking times update live above the editor. Highlight any passage to count just that part.
- Adjust or check. Set a word target in Advanced View, tune reading and speaking speeds in Options, or run the optional AI check on your text or selection.
Understand your counts
Seven statistics update as you type. Here is what each one measures:
- Words
- The total number of words, counting contractions, hyphenated compounds, numbers, URLs, and email addresses as single words.
- Characters
- Every character including spaces, line breaks, and emoji — one emoji counts as one character, not several.
- Characters (no spaces)
- The same count with all spaces and line breaks removed. Many submission forms and ad platforms use this figure.
- Sentences
- An estimated count based on sentence-ending punctuation, with common abbreviations kept inside their sentence.
- Paragraphs
- Blocks of text separated by one or more blank lines. A single line break does not start a new paragraph.
- Reading time
- An estimate of silent reading duration at 225 words per minute by default, adjustable in Options.
- Speaking time
- An estimate of spoken delivery at 130 words per minute by default, adjustable in Options.
How counting works
Words
A word is a whitespace-separated unit, with adjustments that match editorial convention: hyphenated compounds, contractions, numbers, currency amounts, URLs, and email addresses each stay together as one word. Emoji and standalone punctuation never count as words.
| Input | Counted as |
|---|---|
| state-of-the-art | 1 word |
| don’t, O’Connor | 1 word each |
| 3.14159, 2026 | 1 word each |
| $49.99, €12 | 1 word each |
| user@domain.com | 1 word |
| https://example.com/page | 1 word |
| Hello 👋 | 1 word (emoji never count as words) |
| 人工智能 | 4 word units (one per character — an approximation, not word segmentation) |
Characters
Characters are counted as user-perceived characters (grapheme clusters), not raw code units. “Hello 👋” is 7 characters — the emoji counts once, even though it occupies two code units in JavaScript. Combined emoji such as family or profession sequences also count as a single character.
Sentences
Sentences are an estimate, not an exact linguistic boundary. The counter splits on periods, question marks, and exclamation points, but keeps common abbreviations (“Dr.”, “e.g.”), decimal numbers, and ellipses inside their sentence — so “Pi is approx. 3.14 exactly.” counts as one sentence. Scripts with different punctuation conventions are approximated.
Reading and speaking time
Both are estimates from your word count — seconds = round(words ÷ WPM × 60) — not measured completion times. At the defaults (225 WPM reading, 130 WPM speaking), 152 words reads in about 41 seconds and takes 1 minute 10 seconds to speak; 1,000 words read in about 4 minutes 27 seconds and speak for about 7 minutes 42 seconds. Actual speed always depends on the reader, the material, and pauses.
Limitations
- Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text is counted per character — a character-based approximation, not dictionary-based word segmentation. “人工智能” counts as 4 units, though a human might read it as fewer words.
- Sentence detection is punctuation-based and approximate, particularly for languages that use different punctuation or no terminal punctuation.
- Counts may differ slightly from Microsoft Word or Google Docs, which apply their own conventions. No tool’s count is wrong — they measure with different rules.
- Reading and speaking times are pacing estimates, not guarantees of real-world duration.
Use your counts
Assignment limits. Most essay limits refer to total word count. Watch the Words figure while editing, or set an exact target in Advanced View to track progress. Highlight a section to count it alone — useful for splitting a 500-word budget across an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Article and content length. Use the reading-time estimate to hit editorial targets — roughly 4½ minutes for a 1,000-word article at the default speed. The word frequency tool in Advanced View shows which terms you repeat most.
Speaking preparation. The speaking-time estimate at 130 WPM suits a measured presentation pace; adjust it in Options to match how you actually deliver, then confirm with a timed read-through.
AI detection and privacy
Counting measures length. The optional AI check — separate from counting — evaluates statistical patterns that distinguish machine-generated phrasing from human writing. It requires at least 25 words and can run on your full text or a selection. Guests get a small number of free checks; registered accounts receive free monthly checks and can continue with credits or a subscription. Running out never affects any counting feature. For what detection scores can and cannot tell you, see our guide to how AI detection works and the dedicated AI Detector page.
Every counting, grammar, thesaurus, and export feature runs locally in your browser — nothing is transmitted while you type. A draft is auto-saved to your browser’s local storage and can be removed by clearing the editor or your browser data. Text is sent to our servers only when you explicitly click “Check for AI”, and only for that analysis. If a draft is flagged and you want it to read more naturally, the AI Humanizer rewrites text while preserving meaning.