Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs — updated live as you type.
How to Count Words, Characters, and Reading Time
- Paste or type your text into the box above — the counters update live as you type, with no button to click.
- Check the Words, Characters, Chars (no spaces), Sentences, and Paragraphs stats in the row below the text box.
- Look at the Reading Time figure to see roughly how long the text takes to read aloud or silently.
- Use Copy Text to grab your text for elsewhere, or Clear Text to start over with a blank box.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the counter decide what counts as one word?
It trims your text and splits it on runs of whitespace, so anything separated by a space, tab, or line break counts as a separate word. A hyphenated word like "well-known" is counted as a single word since there's no space inside it.
How is the sentence count calculated?
The tool matches runs of text ending in a period, question mark, or exclamation point. This means abbreviations like "Mr. Smith" or "e.g." can inflate the sentence count, since any period is treated as a sentence boundary.
How is the reading time estimated?
Reading time is your word count divided by 200 words per minute, rounded up to the nearest whole minute, with a minimum of 1 minute shown whenever there's text. 200 wpm is a commonly used average adult silent-reading speed.
What's the difference between "Characters" and "Chars (no spaces)"?
"Characters" counts every character in the box, including spaces, tabs, and line breaks. "Chars (no spaces)" strips out all whitespace characters first, so it only counts letters, numbers, and punctuation.
Does this tool upload or store my text anywhere?
No. All counting happens instantly in your browser's JavaScript as you type — nothing is sent to a server, so your text never leaves your device.