Word Counter
Free word and character counter. Count words, characters (with/without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and reading time instantly. No signup.
What is a word and character counter?
A word counter counts the words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and lines in any text, plus reading and speaking time. It’s the essential tool for anything with a length limit — essays, social posts, CVs, and SEO meta descriptions.
How this counter works
- Paste or type text and every metric updates live as you go.
- Words are counted by whitespace-separated tokens; characters include both spaces and no-space counts.
- Sentences, paragraphs, and lines are derived from punctuation and line breaks.
- Reading time assumes ~200 words per minute; speaking time ~130.
How to use the result
- Use the characters-with-spaces count for social media and meta limits — that’s what most platforms enforce.
- Use the no-space count for data-entry fields that strip spaces.
- Watch reading time when writing for the web — most readers skim, so keep landing content under 3 minutes.
- Check the words count against essay requirements — but read the brief, since some count footnotes and some don’t.
How many words are on a page?
A typical single-spaced page is roughly 500 words; a double-spaced page about 250. Reading a 500-word page at a normal 200 words per minute takes about 2.5 minutes. Those conversions let you plan content length before writing a word.
Common mistakes
- Counting characters wrong. Spaces count in most fields — know whether the limit is with or without spaces.
- Trusting one metric. Word count is rarely the whole requirement; sentence length and reading time matter for readability.
- Ignoring the platform. Twitter-style limits count characters, Google Ads counts by character too — not words.
Word counts sit at the intersection of writing and measurement — the same “count and compare” logic powers the standard deviation calculator for numbers and the average median mode calculator for data sets.