What is the Word Counter?
The Word Counter instantly counts the words and characters in any text you type or paste. Along with the total number of words it shows characters with spaces, characters without spaces and an estimated reading time, calculated from an average reading speed of about 200 words per minute. The numbers update live as you type, so you can see your progress without pressing any button.
How to use the Word Counter
- Click the text box and type your text, or paste it from a document, email or web page.
- Watch the four result boxes below update automatically as you edit.
- Trim or extend your text until the word or character count matches your target.
- Use the reading time to judge whether a post, speech or description is the right length.
Benefits and use cases
- Students keeping essays and assignments inside a required word limit.
- Writers and bloggers planning articles of a specific length for readers and search engines.
- Social media users staying within character limits for bios, captions and posts.
- Presenters estimating how long a script will take to read aloud.
Tips for best results
Many platforms count characters differently, so always check the limit of the site you are posting to. For essays, count the text without headings and references if your instructor excludes them. For web articles, aim for a length that fully answers the reader's question rather than hitting an arbitrary number, and read your text aloud to catch awkward sentences.
ToolZen tools run in your browser, so your input is not uploaded to a server. Bookmark this page and come back whenever you need it. There is nothing to install and no account to create.
Frequently asked questions
How are words counted?
Words are groups of characters separated by spaces or line breaks, which matches how most word processors count them.
Does it count spaces as characters?
Both versions are shown: Characters includes spaces and No spaces leaves them out.
How is reading time calculated?
The word count is divided by 200 words per minute and rounded to the nearest minute, with a minimum of one minute for any text.
Is my text saved anywhere?
No. The text is processed in your browser and is not uploaded or stored.