Word Counter
This free word counter counts your words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs live as you type — plus estimates for reading and speaking time. Perfect for essays, articles, blog posts, and social media captions. Your text never leaves your browser.
Your text
Your results
* Reading time estimated at 200 words per minute and speaking time at 130 words per minute. These are estimates — actual times vary.
🔒 Your text never leaves your browser. No network calls are made.
How to use this calculator
Type or paste your text into the box above. Your word count, character counts, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and speaking time update instantly — there's no button to press.
Use Copy stats to copy a plain-text summary of all your stats for an essay cover page, a freelance deliverable, or your records. Clear empties the box and resets every stat to zero.
How it works
A word is anything separated by whitespace: spaces, tabs, or line breaks. Extra spaces don't inflate the count because empty gaps are ignored. Hyphenated words like "well-known" count as a single word, which matches how most editors and publishers count.
A sentence is a run of text ending in a period, question mark, exclamation mark, or ellipsis. A paragraph is a block of text separated from others by a blank line. "Characters (with spaces)" is simply the full length of your text; "Characters (no spaces)" strips all whitespace first.
Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute — the widely used benchmark for average adult reading speed — and speaking time at 130 words per minute, a typical conversational pace. Both are labeled as estimates because individual reading and speaking speeds vary.
Frequently asked questions
How does the word counter count words?
Anything separated by spaces, tabs, or line breaks counts as one word. So "hello world" is 2 words, and "one two" (with extra spaces) is also 2 words, because empty gaps are ignored.
Does the word counter count hyphenated words?
Yes, hyphenated words count as one word. "well-known" counts as 1 word. This matches how most editors and publishers count words.
How is reading time estimated?
Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, the widely used benchmark for average adult reading speed, and speaking time at 130 words per minute, a typical conversational pace. Both are estimates; your actual speed will vary.
Is my text private?
Yes. Counting happens entirely in your browser's JavaScript. Your text is never sent to or stored on any server.
What counts as a sentence?
A sentence is any run of text ending with a period, question mark, exclamation mark, or ellipsis (…). Each one is counted separately, so "One. Two! Three?" counts as 3 sentences.