SEO Tools
Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs instantly as you type. Includes estimated reading time and character count with and without spaces.
About the Word Counter
This free word counter updates every statistic live as you type — words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time — without a page reload or a server request. Your text stays in your browser and is never sent anywhere.
The tool is useful for content creators checking article length, copywriters hitting tight character limits, students tracking essay word counts, and developers testing input fields. Because everything runs in JavaScript there is no limit on text length and no file upload required.
How to use it
- Paste your text into the input box, or start typing directly.
- The counts update live — words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs and reading time.
- The top-keywords panel appears once you have enough text to make density meaningful.
- Use the Clear button to reset, or Copy text to copy the content back to your clipboard.
When word count matters
Blog posts and articles: Most SEO guides recommend 1,500–2,500 words for in-depth posts targeting competitive keywords. Shorter content (500–800 words) works well for news updates and quick-answer pages. The reading time estimate helps you judge whether an article is likely to hold attention.
Meta descriptions: Google typically truncates meta descriptions at around 160 characters. Use this counter alongside the Meta Description Checker to nail the length before you publish.
Social media: X (Twitter) allows up to 280 characters per post. LinkedIn articles have a 110,000 character limit. Facebook posts perform best under 80 characters. Instagram captions are capped at 2,200 characters. The character counter here covers all of these without switching between tools.
Academic writing: Universities set word limits on essays and dissertations. This tool gives the same word count as Microsoft Word and Google Docs because all three split on whitespace boundaries (hyphenated words count as one word, isolated numbers count as one word).
Frequently asked questions
How does the word counter work?
The word counter splits your text on whitespace and punctuation boundaries to count discrete words. It updates live as you type — no button to click, no page reload. All processing happens in your browser; your text never leaves your device.
What counts as a word?
Any sequence of characters separated by whitespace is counted as one word. Hyphenated words like "well-known" count as one word. Numbers and standalone punctuation marks are excluded from the word count.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, which is a typical silent reading speed for adults. The result rounds up to the nearest half-minute. For very short texts under 100 words, the result is shown as "less than 1 minute".
What is the difference between characters with and without spaces?
"Characters including spaces" counts every character in the text, including spaces, line breaks and punctuation. "Characters excluding spaces" strips all whitespace before counting. Publishers and social platforms often use characters without spaces for limits (e.g. Twitter/X), while SEO tools use characters including spaces for meta description length.
Is there a word or character limit?
No. The tool works on any amount of text. Very large texts (hundreds of thousands of words) will still be counted accurately, though the live update may feel slightly slower on older devices.