Word Counter: Free Online Word and Character Count Tool
This free word counter counts the words, characters, sentences and paragraphs in any text as you type. It also shows how long the text takes to read or say aloud, and which keywords you use most. Paste an essay, a blog post, a cover letter or a social media caption and check it against your limit in seconds.
Everything runs in your browser. Your text is never sent to or stored on our server.
Quick answer: Type or paste your text into the box above. The word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, reading time and speaking time update instantly. Nothing is uploaded, so it is safe for private drafts.
How to use the word counter
- Click in the box and type, or paste text you copied from Word, Google Docs, an email or a web page.
- Read the counts in the boxes below the text. They change as you type, so you can trim a draft until it fits.
- Check Top keywords to see which words you repeat most. Common words like “the” and “and” are left out.
- Use Copy text to copy your edited text back out, or Clear to start again.
What this word count tool counts
- Words: any run of letters or numbers. Words joined by an apostrophe or a hyphen, like “don’t” and “well-known”, count as one word. Words in other languages, such as French, Hindi or Spanish, count correctly too.
- Characters: every letter, number, space, punctuation mark and line break. Emoji count as one character each in most cases.
- Characters without spaces: the same total with all spaces, tabs and line breaks removed.
- Sentences: text ending in a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis.
- Paragraphs: blocks of text separated by an empty line.
- Reading time: based on an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute, from a 2019 review of 190 reading studies.
- Speaking time: based on about 150 words per minute, a comfortable pace for a talk or presentation.
Common word and character limits
A character counter is most useful when a platform cuts you off. These are the limits people check most often:
- Text message (SMS): 160 characters per message. Longer texts are split into parts.
- X (Twitter) post: 280 characters on a standard account.
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters.
- YouTube video title: 100 characters.
- Google search results: titles show about 50 to 60 characters and meta descriptions about 150 to 160 characters before they are cut off.
- College essays: often 250 to 650 words, depending on the application.
For bloggers, the counter is a quick way to check post length. If you run a WordPress site, you can also view the word counts of all your WordPress posts at once. Length alone does not make a post rank, though; read our tips on writing blog posts that search engines and readers both like.
FAQ
Is this word counter free?
Yes. It is free with no sign-up, no limit on the number of checks and no watermark.
Is my text private?
Yes. The counting happens in your own browser. Your text is not sent to QuickOnlineTips or stored anywhere, and it is gone when you close the page.
Why is my count different from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Each program treats some things differently, such as dashes, numbers with commas, URLs and words joined with a slash. The difference is usually only a few words in a long document.
Does it count words in other languages?
Yes, for languages that put spaces between words, such as Hindi, Spanish, French or Russian. Languages written without spaces, such as Chinese and Japanese, are not split into separate words.
How many words is a 5-minute speech?
At about 150 words per minute, a 5-minute speech is roughly 750 words. Paste your script into the counter and check the speaking time.
More free tools
See all of them on the QuickOnlineTips free online tools page.