Word Counter
Words, characters, sentences and reading time as you type.
Word Counter counts words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines as you type, and estimates reading and speaking time. It uses Intl.Segmenter, so Chinese, Japanese and Thai — which do not separate words with spaces — are counted correctly rather than as one enormous word. Nothing is uploaded — the text stays in the tab.
Loading Word Counter…
Runs entirely on your device. No file or text you enter here is uploaded. How to verify it.
How to use Word Counter
- Type or paste your text.
- Watch the counts update live.
- Check the character limits panel for social and SEO fields.
Questions about Word Counter
How are words counted in Chinese or Japanese?
With
Intl.Segmenter, the browser's Unicode-aware word segmenter, which knows where word boundaries fall in scripts that do not use spaces. Splitting on whitespace — what most counters do — reports a 500-character Japanese paragraph as one word.Is a hyphenated word one word or two?
One. "State-of-the-art" counts as a single word, matching the convention in Word and Google Docs. Em-dashes between words are treated as separators.
How is reading time estimated?
At 238 words per minute for silent reading and 150 for speaking aloud — figures from meta-analyses of reading rate research. Both are averages across adults; technical material runs slower.
Is there a limit on how much text I can paste?
No fixed cap. Counting runs on every keystroke, so a document beyond a few hundred thousand words will feel less responsive on an older phone. Nothing is sent anywhere regardless of length.
Does it work on an iPhone or an iPad?
Yes. It runs in mobile Safari and Chrome exactly as it does on a desktop, CJK segmentation included, because Intl.Segmenter is part of the browser rather than something this page downloads. There is no app to install.
Is Word Counter really free, with no limits?
Yes. There is no account, no daily cap, no file-size tier and no watermark, because there is no server cost to recover. The site is funded by clearly disclosed partner recommendations on the Partners page, never by metering the tools.
Are my files or text uploaded when I use Word Counter?
No. Everything is processed by JavaScript running in your browser, on your device. You can verify it: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and use the tool. You will see no request carrying your data — because there is nowhere for it to go.