Word Counter

A word counter tells you how long a piece of writing is, but a good one tells you much more than a single number. Our free tool counts words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs as you type. It also estimates reading and speaking time, shows your average and longest sentence, lists the words and two- and three-word phrases you use most, and compares your text against common limits for title tags, meta descriptions, X posts and LinkedIn posts. Everything runs in your browser, so drafts, essays and client copy never leave your device.

How to use the Word counter

1. 1 Paste or type your textDrop your draft into the box, or start typing. Counts update live with every keystroke, so there is no button to press.
2. 2 Read the headline numbersCheck words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs. Use whichever figure your brief, form or platform actually asks for.
3. 3 Check reading and speaking timeReading time assumes about 230 words a minute and speaking time about 140. Use the speaking figure to plan a talk, a video script or a radio advert.
4. 4 Look at sentence length and top phrasesFind your longest sentence and see which words and phrases repeat most. Common stop words such as the, and and of are ignored so the useful terms stand out.
5. 5 Compare against length limitsUse the bars for title tags, meta descriptions, X posts and LinkedIn posts to see at a glance whether the text fits before you paste it anywhere.

What a word counter actually counts

Counting words sounds simple, but tools disagree at the edges. Our counter treats a word as a run of letters or numbers separated by spaces or punctuation, so hyphenated terms such as well-known and contractions such as don't count as one word, and numbers such as 2026 count as words. Different word processors handle hyphens, dashes, URLs and email addresses slightly differently, so you may see a small difference between our figure and Microsoft Word or Google Docs on the same text.

Characters are counted two ways. Characters with spaces is what most platforms and form fields limit, including X, LinkedIn and many job and grant applications. Characters without spaces is sometimes requested by translators and publishers who price or measure work that way. Sentences are detected from full stops, question marks and exclamation marks followed by a new sentence, and paragraphs are separated by a blank line, so a block of text with single line breaks inside it counts as one paragraph.

Reading time and speaking time

Reading time is worked out from an average silent reading pace of about 230 words a minute for adults reading ordinary prose. Speaking time uses about 140 words a minute, a comfortable pace for presentations, podcasts and voiceovers. Both are estimates: people read technical or unfamiliar material more slowly, skim familiar material faster, and speakers vary a great deal.

Use speaking time when you are working to a slot. A two-minute wedding speech, a 30-second radio script or a five-minute pitch at a networking breakfast all have a natural word budget, and checking it before you rehearse saves cutting later. Reading time is handy for blog posts and newsletters, where many sites show an estimated reading time at the top of an article.

If you are writing for a deadline with a fixed length, such as a 500-word column for a local paper, an 800-word guest post or a 1,500-word essay, keep the counter open in a second tab and paste your draft in as you go. It is much easier to plan sections against a word budget from the start than to cut a third of a finished piece. A rough plan helps: allow around a tenth of the words for the introduction, most of the budget for the main points, and a short paragraph to close.

Length limits for titles, descriptions and social posts

The limit bars give you a quick check against the places short text usually ends up. They are guides rather than hard rules, because several of these platforms measure or display text in their own way.

• Title tag, about 60 characters: Google truncates titles by pixel width rather than characters, so treat 60 as a rough guide and check important titles in our SERP Snippet Preview.
• Meta description, about 155 to 160 characters: longer descriptions are usually cut off on desktop, and Google often rewrites the snippet anyway, so put the key message first.
• X post, 280 characters: the standard limit for non-subscribers. Links are counted at a fixed length by X, so a long URL does not use up as much of the limit as its real length suggests.
• LinkedIn post, 3,000 characters: the limit for a normal post. Only the first few lines show before the see more link, so the opening sentence matters most.

Using the top keywords and phrases list

The keyword list shows the words and two- and three-word phrases that appear most often, with common stop words removed. It is a quick way to see what a page is really about from a reader's point of view. If you are writing about boiler servicing in Leeds and the top phrases are about your company history, the page may not be saying clearly enough what you do and where.

It is also useful for spotting repetition. If one word appears far more than any other, or the same three-word phrase shows up in every paragraph, the text can start to read awkwardly. Vary the wording naturally. There is no ideal keyword density that Google rewards, and forcing a phrase in a set number of times tends to make copy worse, not better.

Sentence length and why it matters

Average sentence length is one of the simplest signs of how easy your writing is to follow. UK plain English guidance commonly suggests an average of around 15 to 20 words, with plenty of variety. A few long sentences are fine; a page made entirely of 35-word sentences is hard work, especially on a phone.

The longest sentence figure helps you find the worst offender quickly. Look for places where two ideas have been joined with and, but or which, and split them. For a fuller picture, paste the same text into our Readability Checker, which gives a Flesch score, a UK reading age and highlights for long sentences, passive voice and complex words.

Privacy: your text stays on your device

Many online word counters send what you paste to a server. Ours does not. The counting, phrase analysis and limit checks all happen in JavaScript inside your browser, and nothing is stored, logged or uploaded. That makes it safe to use for unpublished articles, tender responses, personal statements, contracts and client copy under a confidentiality agreement.

Because nothing is saved, the text disappears when you close or refresh the page. Keep your working copy in your own document and paste it in whenever you want a fresh count.

Formatting such as bold, links and headings is not kept when you paste plain text into the box, but the words themselves are counted in the same way. If you paste from a web page, check that menus, cookie notices or footer links have not come along with the article, as they will add to the totals.

Examples you can copy

Title tag              about 50-60 characters (check pixel width)
Meta description       about 150-160 characters
X post                 280 characters
LinkedIn post          3,000 characters
UCAS personal statement  check the current UCAS guidance before you write
1-minute speech        about 140 words
5-minute talk          about 700 words

Reading time  = words / 230  (minutes)
Speaking time = words / 140  (minutes)

1,200-word blog post  ->  about 5 minutes to read
420-word script       ->  about 3 minutes to speak

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions