Word Counter
Paste or type your text below. Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and reading time update instantly in your browser.
About Word and Character Counting
Reading speed (238 wpm average)
The reading time estimate uses 238 words per minute, the median silent reading speed found in a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies. Speeds vary by text complexity: technical docs are typically read at 100-150 wpm, while light fiction can reach 300+ wpm.
Word count benchmarks
Tweet: 280 characters max. LinkedIn post: 3,000 characters. Blog post: 800-2,500 words. Long-form article: 2,500+ words. Academic abstract: 150-250 words. Short story: 1,000-7,500 words. Novel: 70,000-100,000 words. Knowing your target helps you plan structure early.
Character limits for social platforms
Twitter/X: 280 characters. Bluesky: 300 characters. LinkedIn post: 3,000 characters. Meta description (SEO): 150-160 characters. YouTube title: 100 characters. Email subject line: 40-60 characters for best open rates. The no-spaces count helps with platforms that measure differently.
Why no-spaces count matters
Some publishing tools, databases, and CMS fields count characters without whitespace. Japanese and Chinese text has no spaces between words, so character count is the primary measure rather than word count. The no-spaces metric also gives a truer sense of content density.
How to use
- 1Paste or type your text
Enter any text in the input area — an article, essay, email draft, or any document.
- 2Read the statistics
Word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentence count, paragraph count, and estimated reading time update instantly.
- 3Clear and start over
Use the Clear button to reset when you're done.
Frequently asked questions
How is word count calculated?
Words are counted by splitting the text on whitespace (spaces, tabs, line breaks) and filtering out empty segments. Hyphenated words like "well-known" count as one word. Punctuation attached to words is not counted separately.
How is reading time estimated?
Estimated reading time is calculated at 200 words per minute, which is a commonly cited average for adult silent reading. The actual reading time varies by reader and text complexity.
Does it count characters with or without spaces?
Both. The tool displays the character count including spaces (total keystrokes) and excluding spaces (pure content characters) separately.
Is there a text length limit?
No explicit limit — the tool runs in your browser and can handle texts as long as your device's RAM allows. Very long texts (millions of characters) should still work fine.