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Writing

Word Counter

Paste or type any text to see live counts of words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs — plus a real-time estimate of how long it takes to read and speak.

Counts update as you type. Nothing is sent to a server.

Live counts

Words

48

262 characters · 4 sentences

Characters262
Characters (no spaces)214
Sentences4
Paragraphs2
Reading time12s
Speaking time22s

Examples

Tweet at the limit (280 chars)

≈ 50 words · 13s read

Short blog post (500 words)

≈ 2:06 read · 3:51 speak

College essay (1,500 words)

≈ 6:18 read · 11:32 speak

How it works

We split your text on whitespace to count words, on . ! ? to count sentences, and on blank lines to count paragraphs. Reading and speaking time use standard rates.

Reading time · words ÷ 238 wpm

Speaking time · words ÷ 130 wpm

Frequently asked questions

A word is any run of non-whitespace characters. Hyphenated terms like 'state-of-the-art' count as one word, just as Microsoft Word and Google Docs count them.

Contractions like 'don't' count as one word. Abbreviations like 'U.S.' count as one word as long as there's no space inside.

We use 238 words per minute for silent reading and 130 words per minute for spoken delivery — the averages widely used by typography researchers and platforms like Medium.

No. All counting happens in your browser. We don't transmit, log, or store anything you type.