Word Counter
Count words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with reading time and live limits for X, LinkedIn, Bluesky and SMS.
The interactive tool loads here when JavaScript runs.
About this toolWhat is the Word Counter?
Paste or type text and the Word Counter shows words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines while you write. It also estimates reading time, speaking time and page count, lists your most repeated words, and tracks how much room you have left on X, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, search snippets and a single SMS.
The rules are spelled out so you can trust the number. A word is any run of characters between spaces that contains at least one letter or digit, so "don't", "e-mail" and 3.5 count once and a lone dash or emoji does not. Characters are counted as you see them on screen (grapheme clusters), so 👍🏽 or an accented é is one character even though it is stored as several code points. Chinese and Japanese characters count as one word each, the way Microsoft Word handles East Asian text.
Everything runs in your browser. You can open a .txt or Markdown file, set a word goal for an essay or article, and copy a summary of the counts.
- Live counts of words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, lines and unique words
- Reading, speaking and page estimates with editable speeds
- X (twitter-text v3 weighting), Bluesky, Threads, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and SMS limits
- Grapheme-accurate character counts for emoji and accents
- Top words with optional stop-word filter
- Word goal progress bar, .txt upload and copy summary
- Runs in your browser; text is never uploaded
How to use the Word Counter
- Type in the box or paste text. The sample text is there so you can see the counts straight away; Clear removes it.
- Read the main counts at the top right: words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time and speaking time.
- Set a word goal to see a progress bar, and change the reading or speaking speed if you know your audience reads or talks faster or slower.
- Check the Platform limits panel before posting. Bars turn amber near the limit and red when you go over.
- Use Most used words to spot repetition, and Copy counts to paste a summary into an email or brief.
Worked examples
A 600-word blog post
Input
600 words, 3,450 characters
Output
Reading time about 2 min 31 s at 238 wpm; speaking time 4 min at 150 wpm; 1.2 pages single spaced
Reading time is simply words divided by speed: 600 ÷ 238 = 2.52 minutes. Pages assume about 500 words per single-spaced page and 250 double spaced.
A post with a link and an emoji
Input
Launch day 🚀 https://example.com/blog/announcing-our-new-product
Output
X weighted length 37 of 280 (12 + 2 + 23)
The 12 letters and spaces count 1 each, the rocket emoji counts 2 and the link counts 23 whatever its real length, so a long URL costs no more than a short one.
An SMS with a euro sign
Input
155 plain characters plus "€5"
Output
GSM-7, 158 of 160 units, 1 segment
The euro sign is in the GSM extension table and takes two units. Add an emoji instead and the message switches to UCS-2, where the same text needs three segments.
Background and insight
There is no single official definition of a word, which is why two counters can disagree by a few percent on the same text. The usual differences are hyphenated compounds (one word or two), numbers with punctuation, URLs, standalone symbols such as & or a spaced dash, and East Asian scripts that do not put spaces between words. This tool follows the whitespace rule used by most word processors and treats a token without any letter or number as punctuation, not a word.
Reading time uses 238 words per minute by default. That figure comes from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of reading-rate studies in the Journal of Memory and Language, which found an average silent reading rate of 238 wpm for English non-fiction and 260 wpm for fiction. Speaking time defaults to 150 words per minute, a common planning pace for talks and voice-overs; both are editable because speed varies with the reader, the topic and the language.
Platform limits are measured the way each platform measures them where that is documented. X weights text with the open-source twitter-text rules: most Latin, Cyrillic and Greek characters count 1, CJK characters and emoji count 2, and every link counts 23 because it is shortened to a t.co address. SMS follows 3GPP TS 23.038: 160 characters from the GSM 7-bit alphabet fit in one message, extension characters such as € and { take two, and a single character outside that alphabet switches the whole message to UCS-2 with only 70 characters per part.
Common use cases
Essays and applications
Stay inside a 250, 500 or 650-word limit for coursework, scholarship essays and personal statements.
Social posts
Check X weighted length, Bluesky graphemes and LinkedIn characters before you publish.
Speeches and scripts
Turn a word count into minutes so a talk, podcast segment or video script fits its slot.
SEO copy
Keep titles near 60 characters and meta descriptions near 160 so search results do not cut them off.
SMS campaigns
See whether a message fits one segment and which character pushed it into Unicode.
Tips and limitations
- Different tools can differ by a few words on hyphens, numbers and symbols. If a submission portal counts words, its count is the one that matters.
- Turn off "Line breaks end sentences" for hard-wrapped text such as plain-text email, so a sentence split over two lines counts once.
- Search engines truncate titles and descriptions by pixel width, not a fixed character count, so 60 and 160 are guidelines.
- Smart quotes, long dashes and emoji push an SMS into UCS-2. Replace them with plain characters to keep 160 per segment.
- Mastodon's 500 is the default; individual servers can set a different limit.
- Reading time assumes continuous reading. Code, tables and dense technical text take longer, so add a margin.
Frequently asked questions
How does this word counter decide what a word is?
It splits the text on spaces, tabs and line breaks and counts each piece that contains at least one letter or digit. So "well-known" is one word, "3.5" is one word, and a dash or emoji on its own is not a word. Chinese and Japanese characters count as one word each.
Why does my character count differ from another tool?
Some tools count UTF-16 code units, so an emoji with a skin tone counts 4 and a family emoji 8. This tool counts what you see, so each of those is one character. It also shows the UTF-8 byte size if you need storage or database limits.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes 12 seconds at the default 238 words per minute, the average for adult silent reading of non-fiction. Fiction readers average closer to 260 wpm, and technical material is slower.
How many words is a 5 minute speech?
About 750 words at 150 words per minute. A relaxed pace of 130 wpm gives 650 words and a brisk 160 wpm gives 800. Set your own speaking speed and the tool shows the time for your draft.
How many pages is 1,000 words?
Roughly 2 pages single spaced and 4 pages double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins. Fonts, headings and paragraph spacing change this, so treat it as an estimate.
Why does X say my post is too long when it has fewer than 280 characters?
X weights characters. Emoji and Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters count 2, and any link counts 23. The X row here applies the same twitter-text weighting, so you see the number X will use.
Why did my text message split into several parts?
One SMS holds 160 GSM characters. Characters such as € [ ] { } count double, and any character outside the GSM alphabet (most emoji, curly quotes in some phones, many accents) switches the message to Unicode with 70 characters, or 67 per part once it is split.
Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
No. Counting happens in your browser with JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded, and the text is gone when you close the tab.
Is there an in-depth guide to the Word Counter?
Yes. “Word Count, Character Count and Reading Time Explained” covers the background, how it works, common pitfalls and worked examples. Read the full guide.
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