Paste text and see words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time update as you type. Free, no account, and nothing is uploaded or stored.

How it works

Words are runs of characters separated by whitespace, which is the rule Word and Google Docs use. Characters are counted by code point rather than by UTF-16 unit, so an emoji counts as one rather than two. Sentences are counted by terminal punctuation followed by a space or the end of the text, which is what stops a decimal point or an abbreviation from ending one. Paragraphs are blocks separated by a blank line.

What to watch out for

Every count here is a definition, not a measurement

Tools disagree about all of these. Whether "well-known" is one word or two, whether a numbered heading counts, whether a footnote is part of the text. The rules used here are written out below so a number that looks wrong can be understood rather than guessed at, which matters when a limit is involved.

Abbreviations still inflate the sentence count

A sentence is counted at a full stop followed by a space, which correctly ignores 3.14 and e.g. but not Mr. Smith or Fig. 4. Distinguishing those needs a dictionary of abbreviations, and a wrong dictionary is worse than a rule you can predict. Text heavy with titles and citations will read as having more sentences than it does.

Reading time is an average applied to your text, not a measurement of it

The figure is words divided by a speed you choose. It takes no account of difficulty, layout, images or how much anyone stops to think. It is useful for comparing two drafts and for sizing a talk; it is not a promise about any particular reader.

A word limit is only ever your marker's definition

If a count here disagrees with the one that matters, the one that matters wins. Check what the receiving side counts — whether headings, references, captions and footnotes are included — because that difference is usually far larger than any disagreement between counting tools.

Limits

Files up to about 1 MB work reliably. Beyond that, the ceiling is your device's memory rather than any rule we impose — the work happens on your own machine. Tested in Chrome 140, Firefox 143, Safari 18.

Why this one updates as you type

Every other tool on this site waits for a button, because every other tool does real work on a real file and doing that on each keystroke would be wasteful.

Counting is instant, and a counter that makes you ask is not a counter — it is a form. So this page re-counts as you type, and the numbers in the panel move with you.

What each number means, exactly

Words are runs of characters separated by whitespace. So “well-known” is one word and “don’t” is one word. This is the rule Word and Google Docs use, and matching the tool that will check your limit matters far more than any abstract notion of what a word is.

Characters counts everything including spaces and line breaks, by code point. That last part matters more than it sounds: an emoji is stored as two units internally, and a counter using the naive length would tell you one smiling face is two characters. Here it is one, because that is what it is.

Characters without spaces removes all whitespace, which is the figure some translation and typesetting rates are quoted against.

Sentences are counted at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space or the end of the text. Requiring the space is what keeps 3.14 and e.g. from each counting as a sentence.

Paragraphs are blocks separated by a blank line. Single line breaks inside a block do not start a new paragraph, which matches how the text will be read.

Reading time is words divided by the speed you set. Two hundred words a minute is a common figure for silent reading of ordinary prose. Around a hundred and thirty is closer to reading aloud, which is the one to use when sizing a talk.

The limit that actually applies

If you are counting because something has a limit, the number worth knowing is the one the other side produces.

Different institutions count different things. Some include headings, some do not. Some count the reference list, most do not. Footnotes, captions, tables and appendices are each treated differently by different departments and journals. That variation is far bigger than any disagreement between two counting tools, so find the rule before trusting any number, including this one.

Nothing is uploaded

The text stays in the tab. There is no request, no draft saved anywhere, and no history — which is the point when what you are counting is an unpublished manuscript, a cover letter, a legal submission or something written about a person who has not seen it yet.

Close the tab and it is gone.

Your files never leave your browser. Last updated 2026-08-02.

Count words, characters and reading time