Word counter
Paste your text and get the word count, character count, sentences, paragraphs, syllables and how long it takes to read. Updates as you type.
Nothing you paste leaves your browser
Worth saying first, because it is the thing that should worry you about a tool like this. The counting happens in your browser. Your text is never uploaded, never stored and never seen by anyone. You can turn off your internet connection and the tool still works.
Counting words
A word is any run of characters with whitespace around it. That is the same rule Word and Google Docs use, so the numbers line up with them. Hyphenated words like self-esteem count once. Numbers count as words, because in a word limit they take up the same room as anything else.
Counting characters
Two figures, because two questions get asked. Characters counts everything including spaces, which is what social platforms and SMS limits mean. Characters without spaces is what most academic and publishing limits mean. Check which one your limit is asking for before trusting a near-miss.
Counting sentences
Sentences are counted by looking for full stops, question marks and exclamation marks followed by a space or the end of the text. That gets the common cases right, and it handles the obvious traps: abbreviations like Dr. and etc., initials like J. R. R. Tolkien, and decimals like 3.5 are all protected so they do not split a sentence in two.
It is still an estimate. Unusual punctuation, ellipses used mid-thought, or a full stop in a URL can nudge the count. If a sentence figure matters to you, treat it as close rather than exact.
Counting syllables
Syllables are counted with a vowel-group rule: a run of vowels makes a syllable, a silent E on the end does not, and every word gets at least one. It is right for most ordinary words and wrong for a particular kind: ones where two vowels sit next to each other but belong to different syllables. Poem, lion, science and quiet all get undercounted, because the rule sees one vowel run where your mouth makes two.
Getting this exactly right needs a pronunciation dictionary rather than a rule, so this figure is an estimate and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. It is close enough for haiku, poetry and readability checks.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time assumes about 230 words a minute, which is the usual figure for an adult reading silently. Speaking time assumes about 130, which is roughly a comfortable presentation pace. Both are averages: a dense technical paragraph reads slower, and a nervous speaker talks faster.
Rule of thumb. A 500-word blog post takes just over 2 minutes to read. A 5-minute talk is about 650 words. A 2,000-word essay is around 9 minutes of reading.
Common questions
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The counting runs entirely in your browser, so what you paste never reaches a server and is not stored. Close the tab and it is gone.
Does the word count match Microsoft Word?
It should. Both count a word as any run of characters separated by whitespace, so hyphenated words count once and numbers count as words.
Is there a limit on how much text I can paste?
No fixed limit. Very long documents may make the counts update a fraction slower as you type, because the work happens on your own device.
How accurate is the sentence count?
Good for ordinary prose. Abbreviations, initials and decimals are protected so they do not split sentences wrongly, but unusual punctuation can still nudge it. Treat it as close rather than exact.
How accurate is the syllable count?
It is an estimate, and fine for ordinary prose. Syllables are counted with a vowel-group rule, which undercounts words where two vowels sit together but belong to different syllables: poem, lion, science and quiet are the usual offenders. English spelling does not reliably show syllable breaks, so getting every word right needs a pronunciation dictionary rather than a rule.