Words & characters
Words are separated by spaces, tabs, or newlines. Characters are counted both with and without spaces — Twitter, SMS, and SEO limits use "with spaces".
Word & Character Counter
Paste text to see word count, character count, sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading time — with live progress bars for Twitter, SEO title, meta description, and social media limits.
Words
0
Characters
0
Chars (no spaces)0
Sentences0
Paragraphs0
Reading time< 1 sec
Speaking time< 1 sec
Avg word length0
Platform limits
Twitter / X post0/280
SMS (single)0/160
SEO title tag0/60
SEO meta description0/160
Facebook post (preview)0/250
Instagram caption0/2200
LinkedIn post0/3000
Sentences & paragraphs
A sentence ends with ".", "!", or "?". Paragraphs are separated by a blank line. Useful for writers, students, and editors.
Reading time
Calculated at 225 words per minute for silent reading and 140 words per minute for speaking aloud. Useful for talks, articles, and podcasts.
Common use cases
- • Writing essays and reports with a target word count
- • Staying within Twitter / X limits (280 characters)
- • Optimising SEO titles (60 chars) and meta descriptions (160 chars)
- • Estimating reading time for an article or talk
- • Checking whether an SMS fits into a single message (160 chars)
- • Analysing post length for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a word?
A word is any continuous sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by spaces, tabs, or newlines. "John-Smith" counts as one word; "it's" also counts as one.
What is the difference between characters with and without spaces?
Characters (with spaces) includes every character — including spaces, tabs, and newlines. Characters (no spaces) excludes all whitespace. Twitter and SMS limits count characters with spaces.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time uses an average of 225 words per minute for silent reading. Speaking time uses 140 words per minute, the average rate for spoken delivery. The values are estimates and depend on text complexity.
How are sentences detected?
A sentence is recognised by ".", "!", or "?" followed by a space or end of text. Ellipses and exclamations count as a single sentence. For complex cases (abbreviations with periods) the count may be slightly off.
Why do SEO title and meta description limits matter?
Google truncates SEO titles after ~60 characters and meta descriptions after ~160 characters. Text beyond those limits is not visible in search results. The progress bar turns amber at 80% and red above the limit.
Is my text stored anywhere?
No. All counting happens in your browser — your text is never sent to a server and is not stored anywhere.