Word Counter
Paste any text to get a live word count, plus characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, unique words and reading time.
How it works
A word is any run of letters or digits, so hyphenated compounds and words with apostrophes count once rather than twice. Sentences are split on full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, and paragraphs on blank lines — the same rules a person would apply reading down the page.
Counting happens on every keystroke, entirely in your browser. There is no button to press and no request to wait for.
The formula
Words
runs of letters or digits, allowing ' and - inside a word
Characters (no spaces)
total characters − whitespace characters
Unique words
distinct words, compared without case
Worked examples
| Scenario | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| “It's a well-known fact.” | 3 word runs: It's, a, well-known, fact | 4 words |
| A 500-word essay | 500 ÷ 225 words per minute | About 2 min 13 sec to read |
| Two paragraphs split by a blank line | Split on \n\n | 2 paragraphs |
When you'd use it
- Hitting a word limit on an essay, application or abstract
- Checking a meta description or social post fits its budget
- Estimating how long a script will take to read aloud
- Measuring a draft against a client's brief
Common questions
How are hyphenated words counted?
As one word. “Well-known” and “mother-in-law” each count once, which matches how most style guides and word processors treat them.
Does the count match Microsoft Word?
For ordinary prose, yes. Small differences can appear around numbers with separators, URLs and unusual punctuation, because each tool draws the word boundary slightly differently.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole tool runs in your browser, so what you paste never leaves your device. That matters when the text is a draft, a transcript or anything covered by an NDA.