Paste or type any text and this tool tallies it instantly — words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and an estimated reading time. It updates live as you edit, so you can trim to fit a limit without guessing.
How the counts are worked out
Each metric answers a slightly different question:
- Characters is the raw length of your text, spaces and line breaks included — this is the number that matters for hard limits like a tweet or an SMS.
- Characters (no spaces) strips whitespace, which some platforms and forms count instead.
- Words are runs of non-space characters, so "don't" and "state-of-the-art" each count as one word, matching how word processors count.
- Sentences are counted by sentence-ending punctuation (
.!?), and paragraphs by blank-line breaks. - Reading time assumes an average adult silent reading speed of about 200–250 words per minute.
When and why you'd use it
- Staying under a limit — X/Twitter posts (280 characters), SMS (160), or a form field with a maximum.
- SEO writing — page titles read best around 60 characters and meta descriptions around 150–160, where search engines truncate them.
- Essays and assignments — hitting a word count without pasting into a full word processor.
- Estimating effort — how long a page will take an audience to read.
Worked examples
Frequently asked questions
Do spaces count as characters?
In the "Characters" total, yes — spaces and line breaks are included, because that's what platforms with character limits count. The separate "Characters (no spaces)" figure excludes them for cases that don't.
How is a "word" defined?
Any run of characters separated by spaces or line breaks. Hyphenated terms and contractions count as a single word, which matches how Word and Google Docs tally.
Where does the reading time come from?
It divides the word count by an average silent reading speed (~200–250 words per minute). It's an estimate — technical text reads slower, familiar text faster.
Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
No. All counting happens in your browser as you type. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or stored — close the tab and it's gone.