Word Counter

A fast, accurate word counter

This free word counter updates as you type. It counts words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs, and estimates how long your text takes to read and to say out loud. It is useful for essays and assignments with a word limit, blog posts, product descriptions, social media captions and scripts.

How to count words online

1. Type in the box or paste text from Word, Google Docs, an email or a web page.
2. The counters at the top update instantly.
3. Use Copy to copy your edited text, or Clear to start again.

What each counter means

• Words – groups of letters or numbers separated by spaces. Hyphenated words like “well-known” count as one.
• Characters – every letter, number, space and symbol. Useful for tweets, SMS and meta descriptions.
• Characters without spaces – often required by translators and some publishers.
• Reading time – based on an average of 200 words per minute.
• Speaking time – based on about 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for speeches and videos.

Common word count limits

A meta description should be about 150–160 characters. A tweet or X post allows 280 characters. Blog posts that rank well in Google are often 1,000–2,000 words, though quality matters more than length. A one-minute video script is roughly 130–150 words.

More writing tools

Fix capital letters with the case converter, check keyword usage with the keyword density checker, and compare two drafts with text compare.

How many words is that?

Useful benchmarks when you are planning or checking a piece of writing:

Reading and speaking time

Reading time uses 200 words per minute, a typical rate for online reading. Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for speeches, presentations, podcasts and video voice-overs. A 5-minute speech is therefore about 650 words, and a 60-second video script is about 130–150 words.

Who uses a word counter?

• Students keeping essays, personal statements and assignments within limits.
• Writers and bloggers tracking article length and reading time.
• Social media managers fitting captions and bios into character limits.
• Translators, who often charge per word or per character.
• Speakers and YouTubers timing scripts before recording.

Tips for hitting a word limit

If you are over the limit, remove filler words (“very”, “really”, “in order to”), replace phrases with single words (“due to the fact that” → “because”) and cut repeated points. If you are under, add examples, evidence or a short summary. For character-based limits, see our character counter.

Frequently asked questions