Word counter and character counter.
paste anything and the counts update as you type. words, characters, sentences, reading time and the platform limits you are actually writing against. it runs in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere, and there is no email box in the way.
this counter needs javascript. the explanation below works without it.
What it counts, and the rule behind each number
a word is anything separated by whitespace, the same rule word processors use, so your count here matches the one your editor or your client is looking at. characters are counted twice, once including spaces and once without, because the platforms that truncate your text count the spaces and some submission formats do not.
sentences are counted on full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, which means an abbreviation like "e.g." can add one. paragraphs are blocks separated by a blank line. both are approximations by nature, and they are most useful as a shape check: forty sentences in three paragraphs tells you the piece is a wall, whatever the word count says.
Why the limit meters matter more than the word count
most writing gets cut by a machine before a human decides anything about it. a page title past roughly 60 characters gets truncated in search results, a meta description past 155 loses its ending, and a post on X simply stops at 280. the meters on the left track those limits live so you can write to the box instead of rewriting after it breaks.
the two long ones are worth knowing for a different reason. instagram allows 2,200 characters and linkedin allows 3,000, but both collapse after the first two or three lines behind a "more" link, so the real limit is the first 140 characters or so. write those as if they are the whole post, because for most readers they are.
Reading time, speaking time and why they differ
silent reading here uses 238 words per minute, the figure from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 reading studies, which is the most carefully sourced number available for adult non-fiction. speaking uses 140, inside the 120 to 160 band toastmasters gives for an effective speech. that gap is why a blog post that takes four minutes to read runs closer to seven minutes read aloud, and it is the single most common reason a scripted video overruns.
if you are writing something to be spoken, write to the speaking number, then read it out loud once against a timer. if it lands long, cut whole sentences rather than trimming words: speech at pace does not survive dense clauses. when the script is ready, the free teleprompter on this site will scroll it at whatever words-per-minute you set.
Counting words is easy. Getting them read is not.
if you are writing content that has to bring users in rather than just exist, that is the conversation. bring one real piece to the breakdown call.
Common questions
How do you count a word?
anything separated by a space, a tab or a line break counts as one word, which is the same rule Google Docs and Microsoft Word use. hyphenated words like "well-known" count as one. numbers and symbols standing alone still count, so "$300k" is one word.
Do you count characters with or without spaces?
both, at the same time. character limits on X, LinkedIn and Instagram include spaces, so that is the number to watch when you are writing to a limit. the without-spaces count is there because some academic and legal formats ask for it.
Is my text sent anywhere?
no. the counting happens in your browser with javascript, nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and there is no account. you can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and it still works. that also means nothing is recoverable once you close the tab, so keep your draft somewhere else.
How is reading time calculated?
silent reading uses 238 words per minute, from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 reading studies, which is the best sourced figure for adult non-fiction. speaking uses 140, inside the 120 to 160 range toastmasters gives for an effective speech. most tools use a number like this without saying where it came from, and the numbers across them range from 200 to 275 for reading alone, so it is worth knowing which one you are being shown.
What is keyword density and does it matter for SEO?
it is how often a word appears as a share of the total. it is useful as a mirror, not a target: if you wrote 900 words about reddit marketing and "reddit" never cracks the top five, the page is probably about something else than you think. stuffing a keyword to hit a percentage has not worked for a decade and is a good way to get a page ignored.
Can I use it to write a meta description or a tweet?
yes, that is what the limit meters are for. they track the counts that actually get truncated in the wild: 60 characters for a page title, 155 for a meta description, 280 for a post on X, 3,000 for a LinkedIn post and 2,200 for an Instagram caption. the meter turns red the moment you go past.