Count words
Words, sentences, paragraphs and how long it takes to read — updated as you type. Correct for languages that do not put spaces between words, which most counters get wrong. Nothing leaves your device.
- Processed on your device
- No upload, no waiting
- No signup, no watermark
0
Words
any language
0
Characters
emoji count as one
0
Sentences
abbreviations handled
0
Paragraphs
split on blank lines
Every count, and what uses it
- LinesAs an editor numbers them
- 0
- SentencesNot broken by “Dr.” or “etc.”
- 0
- ParagraphsBlocks separated by a blank line
- 0
- Code pointsWhat a regular expression “.” matches
- 0
- UTF-16 unitsWhat string.length reports in JavaScript
- 0
- UTF-8 bytesWhat a VARCHAR limit and HTTP headers measure
- 0
- Reading timeSilently, at 238 words a minute
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- Speaking timeAloud, at 150 words a minute
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- Longest wordBy characters, not bytes
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- Average wordA rough readability signal
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Start typing and everything fills in. Try an emoji, or a sentence of Chinese — both are counted the way a person would count them, which most counters get wrong.
How it works
Paste or type
Or drop a text file in. The count updates as you go; nothing is sent anywhere.
Read the numbers
Words, sentences, paragraphs, lines and characters, plus reading and speaking time.
Check your limits
If you are writing to a limit — an SEO title, a meta description, an SMS — the page shows how close you are.
Frequently asked questions
Is my text uploaded?
No. Nothing is uploaded and no request is made — the counting happens inside this page, on your own device, and it keeps working with the network disconnected. That matters more than it looks for text: what people paste into an online counter is unpublished writing, legal drafts, student work and internal documents.
Does it work for Chinese, Japanese or Thai?
Yes, and this is the main thing that separates it from most counters. Those languages do not put spaces between words, so the usual implementation — splitting on whitespace — reports an entire Chinese article as one word. This uses the browser's Unicode word segmentation (the UAX #29 algorithm), which knows where words actually begin and end in every script. Paste Chinese text into this page and another counter side by side; the difference is immediate.
How is reading time worked out?
Words divided by 238 per minute for silent reading, and 150 per minute for reading aloud. The 238 figure comes from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies of adult silent reading, rather than the round 200 or 250 that gets copied between blog posts. It is an average for ordinary prose — dense technical writing is slower, and a familiar subject is faster.
What counts as a sentence?
A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark — but not after a title or an abbreviation. "We met Dr. Smith on Monday." is one sentence, not two, which the browser's own segmentation gets wrong and this page corrects. "Bring pens, paper, etc. and we will start" is also one; the same phrase followed by a capital letter is two.
What counts as a paragraph?
A block of text separated by a blank line. Counting every line break as a paragraph would call each line of an address a paragraph, which is why the numbers here differ from some other tools.
Does it count words in a Word document or PDF?
Not directly — paste the text in, or use our PDF to Text tool first and paste the result. This page works on text, which is what keeps it instant and private.
Why does my word count differ from Microsoft Word?
Usually hyphens and numbers. Word counts "well-known" as one word and so do we; some tools count two. Standalone numbers, dates and symbols are treated as words here when they contain a digit or letter. For ordinary prose the two agree closely; for a list of part numbers they will not.