Text Counter
Live word, character, line, paragraph and sentence counts, plus reading time
What Is a Word Counter?
A word counter reports exactly how long a piece of text is — word count, character count, lines, paragraphs and sentences — plus the time it takes an average reader to get through it. Writers, students, translators and social media managers all hit length constraints every day: a tweet is capped at 280 characters, a meta description at roughly 160, a college essay at 1,000 words. Tallying these by hand is slow and error-prone, so a live counter that updates while you type settles the question instantly, before you paste anything into a form that silently truncates it. It works for any language and any writing task, from an email subject line to a full manuscript.
What the counter tracks
- 📊 Word count that updates live as you type or paste
- 🔤 Character count, both with and without spaces
- 📝 Line, paragraph and sentence counts for structure
- ⏱️ Estimated reading time, based on 200 words per minute
- 🔄 Sample text and one-click copy to test it quickly
Where it earns its keep
- Staying under a tweet, SMS or form-field character limit
- Checking a meta description fits its search-result budget
- Meeting a brief that demands an 800-word article
- Estimating how long a blog post takes to read
Everything is calculated in your browser. The text never leaves your device — nothing is uploaded, stored or sent anywhere, which also makes it safe for drafts you would rather not share.
What counts as a word here
- Space-separated scripts split on whitespace; CJK text has none, so each character counts as a word-equivalent unit.
- Mixed documents sum both methods — English words plus CJK characters — matching how translation platforms bill.
- Sentences and paragraphs come from terminal punctuation and blank lines, not fixed lengths.
Counting words is easy — until Chinese arrives
Seven live counters
Words, characters with and without spaces, lines, paragraphs, sentences and reading time all update on every keystroke, so the totals you see are always the totals for the text in the box.
Reading time, estimated
A 200-words-per-minute reading speed turns any draft into minutes: size an article for a five-minute commute, a podcast script for a 20-minute slot, or a speech before you rehearse it.
Length limits at a glance
A tweet stops at 280 characters and a meta description at roughly 160. Watch both while you type, and keep sentence and paragraph counts honest as your copy grows.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?⌄
We use 200 words per minute, a commonly cited average adult silent-reading speed, rounded up to at least 1 minute for any non-empty text.
Does this count words the same way as Word or Google Docs?⌄
Very close — words are counted as whitespace-separated tokens, which is what most word processors use too. Small differences can appear around hyphenated words or numbers with punctuation.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?⌄
No. All counting happens locally as you type - the text is processed by your browser and never transmitted, so drafts and unpublished writing are safe to paste.
Why do my word count and my editor disagree?⌄
Tools define words differently: some count hyphenated pairs twice, some skip standalone numbers or symbols, CJK handling varies wildly. Characters are shown alongside words here so you can reconcile against whichever rule your platform publishes.