Count words as you write
Essays, applications, articles and social posts often come with a word limit. This word counter updates live as you type or paste, so you always know where you stand. It works in any browser, on phones and computers, and there is no sign-up.
What it counts
- Words, shown large at the top.
- Characters, with and without spaces.
- Sentences, recognizing full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, as well as the Urdu (۔), Arabic (؟) and Hindi (।) sentence marks.
- Paragraphs, separated by a blank line.
- Lines that contain text.
- Average word length in characters.
- Reading time and speaking time, based on about 200 and 130 words per minute. These are typical averages, not measurements of your own speed.
- Longest word, handy for spotting typos or very long terms.
Accurate in many languages
Many simple counters split text only on spaces and English letters, which miscounts words in other scripts. This counter recognizes letters and combining marks in any script, so Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and accented European text are counted properly, even when mixed with English. Emoji and accented letters count as one character each, as you see them.
Keyword density
The keyword table shows your ten most used words, how many times each appears, and what share of the text they make up. Common words such as “the”, “and” and “is” are left out, so the table highlights the words that carry meaning.
Use it to:
- spot a word you have repeated too often in an essay or cover letter;
- check that an article actually covers its main topic;
- vary your vocabulary before submitting.
Change case in one click
Below the text box you can switch everything to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case (major words capitalized) or Sentence case (first letter of each sentence capitalized). This is useful for headings, or for fixing text typed with Caps Lock on.
Upload a text file
Press “Upload .txt file” to load a plain text file from your device. It is read in your browser, not uploaded. For Word documents or PDFs, copy the text and paste it into the box.
Your draft stays on your device
The text you type is never sent to a server. To protect you from losing work, the counter saves a draft in your browser’s own storage on this device, and restores it when you come back. Press “Clear saved text” to remove the saved copy, or “Clear” to empty the box.
Word limits: a few tips
- Check what counts. Some applications count headings and references; others do not. Follow the instructions you were given.
- Hyphenated words such as “well-known” count as one word here, as in most word processors.
- Numbers count as words, so “in 2024” is two words.
Words or characters?
Essay and application limits are usually given in words, while social media, text messages and search snippets usually use characters. This page shows both, but if you are writing to a character limit, the Character Counter adds progress bars for common limits.
Using reading and speaking time
Reading time helps you judge whether a blog post or email is a quick read or a long one. Speaking time is useful when preparing a speech or presentation: if you have five minutes, aim for a script whose speaking time is a little under that, to leave room for pauses.
Related tools
Writing for a platform with a character limit, such as a social post or a page title? The Character Counter shows progress bars for common limits. Students may also find the GPA Calculator and Percentage Calculator useful, and the QR Code Generator turns a link to your finished work into a scannable code.