How to use the word counter
- Paste or type your text into the box.
- Read the live counts for words, characters, sentences and paragraphs.
- Use the reading and speaking time estimates to plan articles, scripts and speeches.
- Check the most repeated keywords to spot words you may be overusing.
How words and sentences are counted
A word is any run of characters separated by spaces or line breaks that contains at least one letter or number, so a standalone dash or emoji is not counted as a word. A sentence ends with a period, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis. Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by a blank line.
Different apps count slightly differently — for example, some treat hyphenated words as two. Use the counts here as a reliable guide, and check the exact rules if you're submitting to a system with a strict limit.
Common word count targets
- Tweet / X post: 280 characters for standard accounts.
- Meta description: roughly 150–160 characters before search engines may truncate it.
- College application essay: often 250–650 words, depending on the prompt.
- Blog post: anywhere from 600 to 2,000+ words; what matters most is fully answering the reader's question.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time assumes about 238 words per minute, a commonly cited average for adults reading non-fiction silently. Speaking time assumes about 150 words per minute, a comfortable pace for presentations. Your actual pace may differ.
Examples
5 words · 29 characters · 2 sentences · 1 paragraph