Word Counter
Words, characters and reading time.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter or upload leaves your device.
What the word counter does
This tool counts the words in any text you type or paste, along with characters, sentences and paragraphs. It also estimates how long the text takes to read silently or to say aloud, and lists the words you use most often.
It is useful when an essay, job application, abstract or article has a word limit, when a speech has to fit a time slot, or when you want to spot a word you lean on too often. The counts change as you write, so you can trim as you go.
How to use the word counter
- Type or paste your text into the box.
- The counts update as you write: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, speaking time and average word length.
- The Top words panel lists up to ten words you use most, with how often each appears and its share of all words. It leaves out common words such as “the” and “and”.
Understanding the counts
A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis. Abbreviations such as “Dr.” and decimals such as 3.5 can therefore add an extra sentence, so treat the sentence count as a close estimate. Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by a blank line; a single line break does not start a new one.
Average word length is measured in characters per word, including any apostrophes or hyphens inside words. Top words ignores single letters and a built-in list of very common words, and treats capitals and lower case as the same word.
Questions
How is reading time worked out?
Words divided by 238 words per minute, an average silent reading speed for adults. Speaking time uses 140 words per minute.
What counts as a word?
Any run of letters or digits, which can include apostrophes, hyphens and underscores. Hyphenated words and contractions such as “don’t” count as one word.
Why does another program give a different count?
Word processors have their own rules for dashes, numbers, web addresses and symbols. Here a dash with spaces around it is not a word, and an address such as example.com counts as two. Small differences are normal.
Is my draft stored anywhere?
Only in this browser’s local storage, so a refresh does not lose it. It is never sent to UtiBox. Very long drafts, over about 200,000 characters, are not kept. Use Clear to remove it.
What if I need a character count instead?
The character counter checks your text against limits for posts, page titles and text messages.