Word Counter

Run the tool and the Results panel returns five lines: Words, Characters, Characters excluding spaces, Lines, and Estimated reading time. Words are counted as runs of non-whitespace, so anything separated by spaces, tabs, or newlines counts as one word — including numbers, URLs, and hyphenated terms like "state-of-the-art", which register as a single word.

Characters counts every code point in your text, including spaces, punctuation, and line breaks; Characters excluding spaces drops all whitespace first. Lines is the number of newline-separated rows, so a single unbroken paragraph reads as one line even when it wraps visually in the box. Reading time is rounded up to whole minutes, with a floor of one minute for any non-empty text.

Because these are display statistics rather than text you paste elsewhere, the Results panel has no Copy or Download buttons — the counts are meant to be read, not exported. The smaller input caption under the textarea also shows a live word and line tally as you type, before you even press Run.

The common workflow is fitting copy to a limit: an essay capped at 1,500 words, a meta description that needs to stay short, or a field with a strict character ceiling. Paste your draft, run the tool, and read the Words and Characters lines to see exactly where you stand before submitting or pasting into a form.

When a target is measured in characters without spaces — some platforms count that way — use the Characters excluding spaces line instead of the total. For trimming, edit directly in the input box and run again; the recalculation is instant, so you can nudge a sentence and immediately confirm whether you are now under the limit.

Estimated reading time divides the word count by 225 words per minute and rounds up, so a 900-word piece reports 4 minutes and anything from 1 to 225 words shows the 1-minute minimum. The 225 WPM figure is a general average for adult silent reading; treat it as a rough guide for "X min read" labels rather than a precise measurement.

Actual reading speed varies with the reader and the material — dense technical writing, tables, or code slows people down, while light prose reads faster. The number does not account for images, headings, or time spent re-reading, so for a denser article you may want to present a slightly longer estimate than the tool suggests.

Everything here runs in your browser. Your text is processed locally by the page and is not uploaded to a server, so you can safely paste drafts, internal notes, or unpublished copy and the counts are computed on your own device.