How to use the Word Counter
- Type in the box or paste text from any document — counts update instantly as you type.
- Read words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs and reading time from the cards at the top.
- Check Keyword density to see your most-used words and phrases; switch between 1-, 2- and 3-word phrases.
- Use Length limits to see whether the text fits a meta title, meta description, X post, Instagram caption and more.
What is a word counter?
A word counter tells you how long a piece of text is — in words, characters, sentences and paragraphs — and how long it takes to read. Students use it to hit essay limits, writers and editors to meet briefs, marketers to fit ad copy and social posts, and SEO specialists to check page titles, meta descriptions and keyword usage. Everything is calculated in your browser while you type; the text is kept only in your own browser so it's still there when you come back.
How the counts are calculated
- Words are runs of characters separated by whitespace that contain at least one letter or digit, so “don't”, “e-mail” and “2026” each count as one word and a lone dash doesn't count. Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters are counted individually, as those languages don't separate words with spaces.
- Characters are counted as the symbols you see, so an emoji such as 👍🏽 or a flag counts as one character, not four code units.
- Sentences end with
.,!or?(common abbreviations such as “e.g.”, “Dr.” and “etc.” are ignored); a final sentence without punctuation still counts. - Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by a line break, matching how word processors and most CMS editors create paragraphs.
- Reading time assumes 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for non-fiction found in Brysbaert's 2019 review of 190 studies. Speaking time assumes 130 words per minute, a comfortable presentation pace.
Character limits worth knowing
| Where | Limit |
|---|---|
| Google title link (meta title) | ≈ 50–60 characters before truncation (~600 px) |
| Meta description snippet | ≈ 150–160 characters on desktop |
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters (standard accounts) |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters |
| YouTube title / description | 100 / 5,000 characters |
| SMS (single message, GSM-7) | 160 characters (70 with emoji or non-Latin characters) |
To see how a title and description will actually look in Google, use the SERP Preview tool.
Keyword density
Keyword density is the number of times a word or phrase appears divided by the total word count. Common function words (“the”, “and”, “with”) are hidden by default so the table shows the terms your text is actually about. There is no ideal percentage — Google has said for years that it doesn't use a target density — but the table is a quick way to spot accidental repetition or check that the topic you're targeting is actually covered. To analyse a live web page instead of pasted text, use the Keyword Density Checker.
Readability score
The Flesch Reading Ease score rates English text from 0 to 100 using average sentence length and syllables per word; 60–70 is plain English that most adults read easily. Syllables are estimated with a heuristic, so treat the score as a guide, not a grade.
Tools that pair well with the Word Counter
- Case Converter — Paste any text and convert it between 11 letter cases — from Title Case for headlines to camelCase and snake_case for code.
- Remove Duplicate Lines — Paste a list to remove duplicate lines instantly.
- Lorem Ipsum Generator — Create placeholder text for mock-ups and layouts in seconds — classic Lorem Ipsum or readable English filler, as paragraphs, sentences, words or list items, with or without HTML tags.
- Soft Hyphen Generator — Stop long words like “Versicherungsleistungen” from overflowing on mobile: insert invisible soft hyphens automatically or at your own break points, then copy the result.