Word Counter

A Live Word & Character Counter

Whether you're staying under a 280-character tweet limit, hitting a 2,000-word essay target, or timing a five-minute speech, this tool tells you — live — exactly where you stand. It counts words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and lines, and estimates both reading and speaking time.

How Each Count Works

• Words: sequences of letters, digits, apostrophes, and hyphens separated by whitespace.
• Characters: every Unicode character, including spaces and line breaks.
• Sentences: counted by terminal punctuation (.!?).
• Paragraphs: blocks separated by one or more blank lines.
• Reading time: assumes 225 words per minute (average adult).
• Speaking time: assumes 150 words per minute (public speaking pace).

Common Targets

• Twitter/X post: 280 characters.
• Meta description (SEO): ~155 characters.
• SMS text: 160 characters per standard message.
• Blog post (sweet spot): 1,500–2,500 words.
• Short story: 1,000–7,500 words.
• Novel: 70,000+ words.

Reading Time Caveat

225 words per minute is a good average, but reading speed varies a lot with the complexity of the text, the reader's familiarity with the topic, and whether they're skimming or reading deeply. Technical material typically reads at 100–150 wpm.

Privacy

All counting happens live in your browser. Your text is never uploaded or stored.