Word Counter
Free word counter that counts words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and lines as you type, with reading and speaking time. Works for every language.
Words are found with Unicode word segmentation, so Vietnamese, Arabic, Hindi and Thai are counted correctly; Chinese and Japanese are split into dictionary words and their characters are counted separately. Reading time assumes the speed below; speaking time assumes 150 words per minute.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your data is never uploaded.
What is Word Counter?
A live word and character counter for any text. It shows words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines, UTF-8 bytes, average word length and estimated reading and speaking time. Counting happens in your browser as you type.
How to use Word Counter
- Type or paste your text into the Input box.
- Read the word count in the highlighted card; the other cards update at the same time.
- Adjust Reading speed (words per minute) if your audience reads faster or slower than the default of 238.
- Use Clear to start over.
Example
Hello world. This is a test. Second paragraph here!
Words: 9 · Characters: 52 · Characters (no spaces): 43 · Sentences: 3 · Paragraphs: 2 · Lines: 3
When to use Word Counter
Use it to hit word limits for essays, articles, meta descriptions or social posts, or to estimate how long a text takes to read or present. Character counts follow what a person sees (graphemes); if a platform counts UTF-16 code units or bytes instead (some SMS and database limits do), check the Bytes (UTF-8) card or test on the platform itself.
How Word Counter works
Words are found with the browser's Intl.Segmenter (Unicode UAX #29 word boundaries plus ICU dictionaries), so languages without spaces between words such as Thai, Chinese and Japanese are split into real words, and Vietnamese, Arabic or Hindi words with combining marks count as one word each. Only segments containing a letter or digit count. Characters are counted as grapheme clusters, so an emoji like 👍🏽 or an accented letter counts as one character. Sentences use Unicode sentence boundaries, paragraphs are blocks separated by a blank line, and bytes are the UTF-8 length. Reading time is words ÷ reading speed (default 238 wpm, the average for silent reading of non-fiction); speaking time uses 150 wpm.
Common Use Cases
- Keeping an essay or application answer within a word limit
- Checking article length and reading time before publishing
- Estimating how long a speech or video script will take to say
- Counting words in Vietnamese, Arabic, Hindi or Chinese text correctly
- Checking the byte size of text before storing it in a size-limited field
FAQs
How are Chinese and Japanese words counted?
The browser's dictionary-based segmenter splits Chinese and Japanese into words, so 你好世界 counts as 2 words (你好, 世界). The separate Chinese/Japanese characters card shows the character count, which is what many Chinese and Japanese word limits actually use.
Do hyphenated words count as one or two words?
Unicode word segmentation treats the hyphen as a separator, so "e-mail" counts as two words. Apostrophes inside a word are kept, so "don't" is one word.
Why is my character count different from another tool?
This tool counts user-perceived characters, so an emoji with a skin-tone modifier or a letter with a combining accent is one character. Tools that use JavaScript's length count UTF-16 code units and report larger numbers for emoji.
How is reading time calculated?
Words divided by the reading speed you set (238 words per minute by default), rounded to the nearest second. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute.