Count words, characters, sentences, and reading time
0 words
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Words
0
0 characters with spaces, 0 without
Characters
0
No spaces
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0
Lines
0
Words per sentence
0
Reading time
0 sec
at 200 words a minute
Speaking time
0 sec
at 130 words a minute
Character limits
- X (Twitter) post0 / 280 · 280 left
- Meta description0 / 160 · 160 left
- Instagram caption0 / 2,200 · 2,200 left
Close guides only: X counts every link as 23 characters, and Google shortens meta descriptions by width on the screen.
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How to Use
- Type or paste your text into the Your text box, or click Open .txt file to load a text file from your device. Try a sample fills in an example.
- The counts update as you type. There's no button to click.
- You'll see words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines, words per sentence, and how long the text takes to read and to say aloud. Character limits shows how much room is left for an X post (280), a meta description (160) and an Instagram caption (2,200).
- For longer texts, Most used words lists the words you repeat. Turn off Skip common words to include words like "the" and "and".
Who uses a word counter?
- Writers and bloggers: most SEO-focused articles aim for 1,500–2,500 words. Platforms like Medium show reading time, and 7–10 minutes is a common target for keeping readers engaged.
- Students: essays, dissertations and competitive exam answers often have strict word limits (500, 1000, 2000 words).
- Social media managers: Twitter/X allows 280 characters, and LinkedIn posts do best at 1,300–2,000 characters.
- Translators and proofreaders: the word count decides the price of a job, so an accurate count avoids billing arguments.
- Developers: check field lengths before putting text into database columns or API payloads.
How reading time is worked out
This word counter estimates reading time at 200–250 words per minute, the average adult reading speed. So a 1,000-word article takes about 4–5 minutes to read. Google doesn't rank pages by word count, so write as much as the topic needs and no more.
Frequently Asked Questions
At 200 words a minute, a typical adult reading silently (most people read 200 to 250). Speaking time uses 130 words a minute, a steady pace for a speech or presentation. Technical or legal writing is read more slowly, so allow extra time for it.
Anything separated by spaces, tabs or line breaks counts as a word. Hyphenated words such as 'well-known' count as one word. Numbers count as words. Punctuation stuck to a word is ignored.
Both. 'Characters with spaces' counts every character, including spaces, tabs and line breaks. 'Characters without spaces' counts only the rest, which helps when a form or assignment sets a limit that leaves out spaces. X (Twitter) does count spaces in its 280-character limit.