Word Counter

A live word and character counter

Drop in any text and the Word Counter tallies it in real time. As you type or paste, six numbers update at once: words, characters (with spaces), characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading time. It is handy for students hitting an essay target, writers trimming a draft, marketers fitting an SEO meta description into 160 characters, and anyone squeezing a post under the 280 character limit on X.

How to use the word counter

1. Click into the large text box and type, or paste text you copied from somewhere else.
2. Watch the six stat cards above the box update on every keystroke. No button to press, no “calculate” step.
3. Check the Characters card for limits that include spaces, or No spaces when a field counts only visible characters.
4. Glance at the Min read card for a rough reading time, based on about 200 words per minute.
5. Hit Clear to empty the box and start over.

Why count words here

It is genuinely instant: counting runs as you type, with no loading and no waiting on a server. Your writing stays on your device, since everything happens locally in the browser, so private drafts, client copy, or unpublished work never get uploaded anywhere. There is no account to make and nothing to install, and it works the same on a phone, tablet, or laptop. Sentences are detected by end punctuation (. ! ?) and paragraphs by blank lines between blocks, which matches how most people break up text.

Quick tips

Paste plain text rather than richly formatted content for the cleanest count. If a paragraph total looks low, make sure you left an empty line between sections, since that is what separates paragraphs. For long documents you process in bulk, the BulkPro desktop app from the same team handles batch jobs, though this page is built for a quick count of whatever you have on hand.