Word Counter
Whether you are a student squeezing an essay under a 500-word limit, a writer pitching an article of exactly the length an editor asked for, or an applicant writing a personal statement with a hard character cap, counting words by eye is slow and unreliable. This free word counter does the counting as you type or paste, and it does it entirely in your browser — the text you paste here is never uploaded anywhere, so drafts, essays, and unpublished work stay private.
Who it is for: students, bloggers, copywriters, job applicants, and anyone who writes to a limit. Example: a teacher asks for a 750-word book report with a 10% allowance. Paste your draft, watch the word count and reading time update live, and trim or expand until you land in range — no manual counting, no surprises at submission time.
How to Use the Word Counter
- Click in the box above and start typing, or paste text from any document with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac).
- Watch the statistics update instantly — there is no button to press and no page reload.
- Use Characters (no spaces) for platforms that count that way, and Reading time (based on an average of 200 words per minute) to estimate how long a speech or article takes to read aloud.
- Click Clear text to wipe the box and start fresh. Because everything happens locally, cleared text cannot be recovered — copy anything you need first.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the counter define a "word"?
A word is any run of characters separated by spaces or line breaks, matching the way most word processors count. Hyphenated words such as "well-known" count as one word, and numbers count as words too.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time assumes an average adult reading speed of about 200 words per minute for silent reading. A 1,000-word article therefore shows roughly 5 minutes. Speaking aloud is slower — about 130–150 words per minute — so allow extra time for speeches and presentations.
Is my text stored or sent anywhere?
No. Counting happens with JavaScript in your own browser. Your text never leaves your device, which is why the tool also works offline once the page has loaded.
Why does my word processor show a slightly different count?
Different programs treat edge cases differently — for example, whether a standalone number, a symbol, or text in a table counts as a word. Small differences of a few words are normal; the counts here follow the most common convention used by Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
Writing to a limit is a skill in itself. Our guide How a Word Counter Makes You a Better Writer shows how professional writers use counts, reading time, and sentence length to edit more ruthlessly.