Word Counter Online — Count Words, Characters and More
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time as you type. Free, instant, browser-based.
This tool provides real-time text statistics as you type or paste text, with no need to click a button. It counts words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and estimates reading time based on an average reading speed of 200 words per minute. These statistics are useful for writers staying within word count limits, content marketers optimising for SEO, students writing essays with length requirements, and anyone who needs to know the length of their text.
How to use
- Paste or type your text into the textarea below.
- Word count, character count, sentences, paragraphs and reading time update instantly as you type.
- No button press needed — statistics are always current.
FAQ
How is 'word' defined?
A word is defined as a sequence of non-whitespace characters. Contractions (don't, can't) count as one word. Hyphenated words (well-known) count as one word. Numbers and punctuation-only tokens (e.g., '---') count as words if they are surrounded by whitespace. This matches the definition used by most word processors including Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
How is 'sentence' counted?
Sentences are counted by splitting on sentence-ending punctuation: full stops (.), exclamation marks (!), and question marks (?). Abbreviations with periods (e.g., 'Dr.', 'etc.') may cause slight over-counting. The count is a practical estimate rather than a linguistically precise count.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time is calculated using an average adult reading speed of 200 words per minute, which is a commonly cited figure for general text. For technical or dense academic text, actual reading time will be longer. For simple prose, it may be shorter. The estimate is displayed as minutes and seconds.
What is the difference between 'Characters' and 'Characters (no spaces)'?
Characters counts every character including spaces, newlines, and punctuation. Characters (no spaces) counts only characters that are not whitespace — every letter, number, and punctuation mark, but not spaces or line breaks. The 'no spaces' count is more useful for platform character limits that exclude spaces, such as some SMS systems or display width calculations.
Can I count words in languages other than English?
Yes. The word counter splits on whitespace, which works for all languages that use spaces between words — including French, German, Spanish, Polish, and other European languages. Languages that do not use spaces between words (Chinese, Japanese, Thai) will not count correctly — the entire text will appear as one 'word'.
Is there a character or word limit?
There is no limit imposed by the tool. Large texts (hundreds of thousands of words) are handled without issue, though very large inputs may have a barely noticeable delay before statistics update. The update is debounced slightly to maintain UI responsiveness during fast typing.