Word Counter — Words, Characters, Sentences, and Reading Time
Count whitespace-separated words, Unicode code points, punctuation-delimited sentences, and estimated reading time in your browser.
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How to use it
Paste a draft to check its length before publishing. Counts update when you run the tool.
Good to know
Word counts use whitespace-separated tokens. Reading time estimates 200 words per minute.
Check a draft before you send it
Paste the complete text and run the counter. It reports words, characters, sentences, and an estimated reading time. For example, Hello world! Again? reports three words and two sentences. This is useful for a brief, form field, or article draft where you need a quick, repeatable count.
How this counter defines a word
Words are pieces of text separated by whitespace. Multiple spaces, tabs, and line breaks do not create empty words. That means one two counts as two words, while hello—world counts as one because there is no space around the dash. Hyphenated terms, handles, URLs, and punctuation stay attached to their surrounding text for this purpose.
Characters are counted as Unicode code points, so 😀 counts as one. A visible character made from several code points, such as a combined emoji or accented letter, can count as more than one. Sentence count looks for runs of ., !, or ?; Wait... really? Yes! counts as three sentences. It cannot interpret abbreviations, headings, or code as a human editor would.
Use the reading-time estimate carefully
The estimate uses 200 words per minute and rounds up. A 350-word draft shows about two minutes; even a one-word draft shows one minute. It is a planning aid, not a measurement of how long a particular reader will take. Check an editor’s own rules if a submission specifies a word-count method. The tool accepts up to 100,000 characters per run and processes the text in your browser.