Free Online Word Counter
Instant character & reading time analysis.
Why Use a Word Counter?
Are you writing a blog post, an essay, a social media post, or a product description? No matter what kind of writing you're doing, it's important to keep track of your word count and character count. Many platforms have strict word count limits, from Twitter's 280 character limit to Google Ads' 30 character limit for headlines, and LinkedIn's 700 word limit for articles. Going over these limits can keep you from being seen.
Our word counter doesn't just give you a word count. It also gives you an idea of the reading time required for your text, assuming an average adult reading speed of 238 words per minute. We also provide sentence and paragraph count to help you evaluate the quality of your writing. In addition, our word counter provides keyword density to help you keep your writing SEO-friendly without over-optimizing.
Ideal Word Counts by Content Type
- Blog post: 1,500 – 2,500 words
- SEO article: 1,000 – 2,000 words
- Academic essay: varies by assignment
- Product description: 150 – 300 words
- Email newsletter: 200 – 500 words
- Social media post: 40 – 80 words
- Cover letter: 250 – 400 words
Character Limits to Know
- Twitter / X: 280 characters
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters
- Facebook post: 63,206 characters
- Google title tag: ~60 characters
- Meta description: ~160 characters
- YouTube title: 100 characters
- TikTok caption: 2,200 characters
How Does Our Word Counter Work?
- 100% private. Your text stays strictly in your browser, and we don't send it anywhere, with calculations done entirely on your computer via JavaScript.
- Instant processing. No need to press any buttons - statistics are updated immediately, while you type or paste.
- Intelligent word counting. Word count is performed by splitting text into words and ignoring empty words, exactly like Microsoft Word.
- Keyword density. Common words like "the," "a," "is," etc., are excluded from the count, so you get to see meaningful keywords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I count the words in my text?
You can paste or type your text in the big field. All counts-including words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and speaking time—will be updated in real-time. There is no need to click any button; it's instant. Use the "Quick limits" buttons at the bottom if you are writing to a specific length constraint.
How is "Reading Time" calculated?
Reading time is based on an average adult's reading speed of 225 words per minute (WPM). For larger documents like essays or research papers, we estimate about 75 words per minute for more complex or technical content.
Are spaces included in the character count?
Yes, our tool provides two separate character counts: one including all spaces and punctuation, and one excluding spaces. This is helpful for social media platforms like X (Twitter) or Mastodon, where spaces count against your character limit.
Is there a word limit for the counter?
No, there is absolutely no word limit for our tool. You can paste an entire manuscript or multi-page report and get an instant count. All processing happens locally in your browser, so even very large texts are handled efficiently without any server communication.
Does the word counter match Microsoft Word's count?
Essentially, yes. We count words by splitting on whitespace and filtering out empty tokens, just as Microsoft Word does. There may be small discrepancies in the count for hyphenated words or nonstandard punctuation, but for normal text, the counts will be the same.
What is keyword density and why does it matter?
Keyword density refers to the frequency of a given word in relation to the overall word count. If "optimization" appears 10 times in a 500-word article, then the keyword density for "optimization" in that article is 2 percent. In the world of SEO, having your keyword show up in your text at least once or twice per 100 words (about 1-2 percent) helps search engines figure out what your page is about. More than that and you're "keyword stuffing," which can cause problems for your search engine ranking.
Is my text sent or stored anywhere?
No. All the calculations take place locally in your browser with JavaScript. Your text is not sent anywhere. This is particularly important if you're counting words in drafts, confidential reports, academic papers, or anything else that's not yet ready for public consumption.