Word Counter
Text & Dev ToolsWords, characters, sentences and reading time as you type — counted in your browser.
What you type never leaves this device. Everything here runs in your browser — your text is never uploaded, stored or seen by us. Open your network tab and check.
Words
24
133 characters · 109 without spaces
Unicode word boundaries, words only
- Sentences
- 3
- Paragraphs
- 2
- separated by a blank line
- Reading time
- 6 s
- words ÷ 238 a minute
- Speaking time
- 8 s
- words ÷ 183 a minute
- Size
- 133 bytes
- encoded as UTF-8
How this is calculated
words Unicode word boundaries — punctuation, dashes and emoji are not words characters what a reader sees as one character: 👍🏽 is 1, not 4 sentences Unicode sentence boundaries paragraphs text separated by a blank line reading time words ÷ 238 a minute silent reading, non-fiction speaking time words ÷ 183 a minute reading aloud
How it works
Counting words sounds simple until you decide what a word is. Splitting on spaces counts "Wait — really?!" as three words because the dash stands alone, and counts a whole sentence of Chinese as one word because Chinese is written without spaces. This counter uses the Unicode word-boundary rules built into your browser instead, and counts only the pieces that are words: letters and numbers, not punctuation, dashes or emoji. A contraction such as don't stays one word.
Characters are counted the way a reader sees them rather than the way a computer stores them. An emoji with a skin tone is four units of storage and one character on screen; so is an accented letter built from two parts, and a Hindi syllable such as स्ते is several code points shown as one. The size in bytes is shown separately, because that is what many database fields and form limits actually count.
Reading and speaking times come from the largest review of reading-rate research to date: Brysbaert (2019), 190 studies and 18,573 readers. It found adults read English non-fiction silently at an average of 238 words a minute and read aloud at 183. Commonly quoted figures of 250 to 300 are, by that study's account, overestimates. People vary a lot around the average, so treat the time as a guide for how long a page will take most readers, not a stopwatch.
Word processors disagree with each other at the edges — on hyphenated words, numbers with decimal points, web addresses and email addresses — because each uses its own rules. If a limit is being enforced by a particular system, such as a university's submission portal, the count that binds you is that system's.
Worked example
The sentence "Wait — really?! 👍 I'd say yes."
- Split on spaces: Wait · — · really?! · 👍 · I'd · say · yes. = 7
- Unicode word rules: Wait · really · I'd · say · yes = 5
- The dash and the emoji are not words.
- I'd stays one word.
- Reading time: 5 ÷ 238 × 60 = about 1 second
5 words, not the 7 a space-counter gives
Source
How to use it
- Paste or type text into the box. Everything is counted as you go.
- Read the word count, with characters and characters without spaces beneath it.
- Check sentences, paragraphs, reading time, speaking time and size in bytes below.
- Use Clear to start again. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.
What this tool does not do
- Hyphenated words, web addresses, decimals and email addresses are split by Unicode's rules, which differ from some word processors. Where a specific system enforces a limit, its count is the one that counts.
- Reading and speaking times are averages for adults reading English non-fiction. Fiction is read a little faster on average, technical text slower, and individuals vary widely.
- Paragraphs are counted by blank lines. Text pasted without blank lines between paragraphs counts as one paragraph.
- In browsers without Unicode word segmentation, words are counted by spaces, and the page says so.
- The text is not saved. Closing or reloading the page loses it.
Frequently asked questions
How are words counted?
With the Unicode word-boundary rules built into your browser, counting only segments that are words — letters and numbers. Punctuation, dashes and emoji are not counted, a contraction such as don't counts once, and languages written without spaces, such as Chinese and Japanese, are split into words rather than counted as one long word.
Why is my count different from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Each program has its own rules for hyphenated words, numbers, web addresses and symbols, so counts differ slightly between them. A long document can differ by a few words. When a limit is enforced by a particular system, go by that system's count.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes 12 seconds silently, at the adult average of 238 words a minute for non-fiction, and about 5 minutes 28 seconds aloud at 183 words a minute. Both averages are from a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 reading studies.
Does a character count include spaces?
Both are shown. Characters counts everything a reader sees, including spaces and line breaks; characters without spaces leaves out every kind of whitespace. Emoji and accented letters count as one character each, however many bytes they take.
Why show the size in bytes?
Because many limits are really byte limits. A database column, an SMS segment or a form field often counts the text as UTF-8 bytes, where English letters take one byte each but ₹ takes three and most emoji take four. Two texts with the same number of characters can have very different sizes.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. The counting runs in your browser and no network request carries what you type. The only requests the page makes once you use it are small ones recording that the tool was used, with nothing from your text in them.
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Last updated 13 September 2026.