How to use Word counter
- Type or paste your text.
- Read the counts, which update as you type.
- Use the reading and speaking times to plan an article or a talk.
What is counted
Words are runs of letters and digits, with apostrophes and hyphens inside a word kept together, so don't and well-known count as one word each. Characters are counted the way you see them: an emoji with a skin tone, or a letter with a combining accent, counts as one, not as the several code points it's stored as. Characters without spaces leaves out spaces, tabs and line breaks.
Sentences end at full stops, question marks and exclamation marks; paragraphs are separated by blank lines.
Reading time and tokens
Reading time assumes 238 words a minute, the average for adults reading non-fiction in English. Speaking time assumes 140 words a minute, a comfortable pace for a talk or a video script.
The AI token figure estimates how much of a language model's context window your text uses, at about 4 characters per token, which is close for English text with GPT and Claude models. Code, other languages and unusual words use more tokens per character, so treat the figure as a guide rather than an exact count.
Common uses
Keeping an essay or application answer under a word limit, checking a meta description or social post against a character limit, timing a speech, or checking whether a long document fits in an AI model's prompt window.
Privacy
Counting happens in your browser as you type. Your text is never saved or sent anywhere, so drafts, essays and confidential documents stay on your device. Close the tab and the text is gone.
Typical limits
Search engines usually show about 150 to 160 characters of a meta description. Posts on X allow 280 characters, LinkedIn posts 3,000 characters, and many university application essays 650 words. Check the characters or words figure against the limit you're writing for, and remember that some sites count characters differently, for example counting links as a fixed length.
Questions
- Do emoji and accented letters count as one character?
- Yes. Characters are counted the way you see them, so an emoji with a skin tone counts once, not as several code points.
- How accurate is the AI token count?
- It's an estimate of about 4 characters per token, which is close for English with GPT and Claude models. Exact counts differ by model and language, so treat it as a guide.
- Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
- No. Counting happens in your browser as you type.