Word counter — words, characters & reading time
Paste or type your text and get live word, character, sentence and paragraph counts, plus reading time and platform character limits. Runs entirely in your browser.
Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded or stored.
Details
- Characters (no spaces)
- 0
- Unique words
- 0
- Reading time (~200 wpm)
- 0 min
- Speaking time (~130 wpm)
- 0 min
Top words
Frequent words appear here once you add text (common words like “the” are ignored).
Platform limits
- X post0 / 280
- SEO title0 / 60
- Meta description0 / 160
- Instagram caption0 / 2,200
- LinkedIn post0 / 3,000
When an exact word count matters
College essays and applications usually enforce strict limits (a 650-word Common App essay, a 500-word statement). Blog posts and SEO articles are often planned against targets like 1,000 or 2,000 words. Social posts fail to publish when they cross a platform's character cap, and ad headlines get truncated in search results. Counting as you write beats trimming after the fact.
The top-words list doubles as a quick keyword check for SEO writing: if your main keyword is not among the most frequent words in the draft, search engines will struggle to see the page's topic too. Common filler words are excluded automatically.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the word counter count words?
- Text is split on whitespace, so anything separated by spaces, tabs or line breaks counts as a word. Numbers and abbreviations count too — the same rule word processors like Google Docs and Word use, so the totals match closely.
- How is reading time calculated?
- Reading time assumes an average adult silent-reading speed of about 200 words per minute; speaking time uses about 130 words per minute, a comfortable presentation pace. Both are estimates — your audience may be faster or slower.
- Is my text uploaded anywhere?
- No. Everything is calculated in your browser as you type. Your text never leaves your device, nothing is stored, and there is no sign-up.
- What are the character limits for X, Instagram and LinkedIn?
- A standard X post allows 280 characters, an Instagram caption 2,200, and a LinkedIn post 3,000. For search results, Google typically shows about 60 characters of a title and about 160 of a meta description. The limit bars track all of these live.
- Does it work for essays with a required word count?
- Yes — paste your draft and the live word total, sentence count and paragraph count update instantly, which makes it easy to hit essay, assignment or application limits precisely.