Free tool
Word Counter with Reading Time, Keyword Counts and a Goal Bar
Paste a draft, type straight into the box or open a document, and the numbers update as you write. Beyond the word total you get reading and speaking time, the words you lean on most and a rough reading level.
Fits the limit?
X counts each link as 23 and an emoji or most non-Latin letters as 2, as X does. YouTube title and search title use the first line. Google shortens titles and descriptions by width, not by a set count; the guide numbers are what most SEO guides aim for.
Most used
Click a word to find it in your text. Common words such as "the" and "and" are left out unless you include them. The percentage is the share of all words.
Sentences and level
- Average sentence
- 0 words
- Longest sentence
- 0 words
- Lines
- 0
- Syllables
- 0
- Reading ease
- -
- School grade
- -
Reading ease and school grade are the Flesch and Flesch-Kincaid scores, worked out for English, with syllables counted by rule. A higher ease is easier to read. For more scores and the hard sentences marked, use the readability checker.
- Characters
- 0
- Without spaces
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Reading time
- 0 sec
- Speaking time
- 0 sec
- Unique words
- 0
- Average word
- 0 letters
In words a minute. 238 and 183 are the averages for adults in Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review of 190 reading studies. Type your own pace to change the times.
Counting happens in your browser and files you open are read there, not uploaded. Text you type is kept on your own device so a reload does not lose it, and text opened from a file is not kept.
When a brief gives you a number to hit
Usually a counter gets opened because someone handed you a length. A page of service copy should run to a certain size, a blog post has a target, a bio has a ceiling. The big figure above the box shows words, characters and reading time at once, so you can write toward the number instead of checking it at the end.
The side column adds the figures editors ask about: characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, unique words and the average word length. Select part of the text and the counts switch to that selection, which helps when only one paragraph has a limit.
Setting a goal and checking where it fits
Pick a goal in words or in characters and a bar fills as you write. Below it, a list of channels shows whether the text fits each one. It covers an X post, a LinkedIn post, an Instagram caption, a YouTube title and description, a search title and a meta description.
Two notes on that list. The social and video lines are counted by the platform's own method, and the search title and meta description lines are guide numbers only, because Google cuts them by pixel width and not by a fixed count. If you write page titles often, the meta title and description checker shows a preview of how they may look in results.
Opening a file instead of pasting
The Open file button reads these types directly in the page:
- Plain text, Markdown, CSV and subtitle files (txt, md, csv, srt, vtt)
- Web pages saved as html
- Word and OpenDocument files (docx and odt)
- PDF files and EPUB books
Reading a PDF gives you the text layer only. A scanned PDF that is just a picture of pages has no text to read, so the count will come out empty or low.
Finding the words you lean on
The Most used panel lists single words, pairs and triples, with the share of all words each one takes. Common words such as the and and are left out unless you switch them on. Click any word and it is marked in your text, which is a quick way to see that you wrote the same phrase four times in one page.
| Panel | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Most used | Repeated words and phrases, with a share of the total |
| Sentences and level | Average and longest sentence, syllables, a reading ease score and a school grade |
| Find and replace | Match case and whole word switches, then replace one or all |
The reading scores are the Flesch and Flesch-Kincaid formulas for English, with syllables counted by rule, so treat them as a guide. For the full set of scores with hard sentences marked, use the readability checker.
Where word counts matter on a website
Thin pages are a common reason a service page fails to hold its ground, and length alone does not fix that. Use the count to see whether a page says enough about each job it describes, then ask whether every paragraph adds something. Our website redesign SEO checklist covers how page content is reviewed before a rebuild.
Frequently asked questions
How does this tool count words?
It uses the browser's own word rules, so scripts without spaces such as Chinese or Japanese are counted by word too. A hyphenated pair like well-known counts as one word.
Does it count emoji as one character?
Yes, an emoji counts as one character in the main total. The X line in the limits list uses X's own weighting, where emoji and many non-Latin letters count as two.
What reading and speaking times does it use?
The defaults are 238 words a minute for silent reading and 183 for reading aloud. You can type your own pace in the two boxes and the times change.
Is my text uploaded?
No. Counting and file reading happen in your browser. Text you type is stored on your own device only so a reload does not lose it.
Can I count only part of my text?
Yes. Select the part and the counts show that selection by itself.
Why does my count differ from Word or Google Docs?
Each program has its own rules for hyphens, numbers and symbols. Small gaps of a few words are normal when the same text goes through different counters.
More free tools
- Character counter: Count characters and check text against social post, title, meta description and SMS limits.
- Readability checker: Score English text with six readability formulas and highlight long sentences, hard words and passive voice.
- Words to minutes calculator: Turn a word count or script into speaking time, measure your own pace and get line-by-line timings.
- Case converter: Convert text to sentence, title, upper, lower or code case, with Chicago and APA title rules.
- Spell checker: Check spelling in US, UK, Canadian or Australian English, with repeated words marked and your own dictionary.