Word Counter & Character Counter

How to use this word counter

A word counter sounds trivial until you are trimming a client's homepage to fit a design, hitting a 1,500 word brief, or squeezing a meta description under Google's cutoff. This one counts as you type and keeps everything on one screen: totals on the right, length limits underneath, and a keyword density table below.

1. Paste or type your text into the box. Counts update instantly, and very long documents are counted a moment after you stop typing so the page never lags.
2. Read the totals. Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, unique words and average word length, plus reading and speaking time.
3. Check a specific piece. Highlight a sentence or a draft title and the length meters measure only the selection, so you can test a page title without deleting the rest of your draft.
4. Scan keyword density to see which words and two or three word phrases you lean on most. Switch stopwords back on if you want to see filler like "very" and "just".

Your text is stored in this browser's local storage so it survives a refresh. Nothing is sent to a server, which makes it safe for unpublished copy and client drafts.

Character limits worth knowing

Most writing limits are measured in characters, not words, and most of them count spaces. The meters cover the ones web teams hit every week:

• Page title, 60 characters. Google truncates titles by pixel width, around 580 pixels on desktop. Sixty characters of normal text usually fits; a title full of capital Ws will not. Preview the real thing with the meta tag and SERP previewer.
• Meta description, 155 characters. Long enough for a benefit and a call to action. Write 120 to 155 and front-load the important part.
• X post, 280. X weights characters: links always count as 23, and emoji and most non-Latin scripts count double. The meter applies the same weighting, so it matches what the composer will tell you.
• SMS, 160 or 70. Plain Latin text fits 160 characters per segment. One emoji or curly quote switches the whole message to Unicode, which drops the limit to 70.
• YouTube title 100, Google Business Profile post 1,500, Instagram caption 2,200, LinkedIn post 3,000.

What counts as a word?

Rules differ between tools, which is why Word, Google Docs and online counters sometimes disagree by a few words. Here a word is any run of letters or numbers, and hyphens or apostrophes inside a word keep it whole. Accented and non-Latin letters count correctly.

Text:   Our well-known team isn't open 24/7 (yet).
Words:  Our | well-known | team | isn't | open | 24 | 7 | yet
Count:  8 words, 42 characters, 36 without spaces

Sentences are split on periods, question marks and exclamation points followed by a space, so decimals like 3.5 do not create a new sentence, though abbreviations such as "e.g." can. Paragraphs are counted the way word processors do it: every non-empty line is one paragraph.

Reading time and speaking time

Reading time uses 238 words per minute, the average for adult silent reading of nonfiction. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a comfortable presentation pace. They are handy for blog post headers ("6 minute read"), video scripts, podcast intros and conference talks.

Using keyword density without keyword stuffing

Keyword density is a diagnostic, not a target. Search engines have not rewarded a particular percentage for many years, but the table is still useful. It shows whether your page actually mentions what you want it to rank for, and it exposes repetition you stop seeing after the third draft. If "solutions" is your top word, the copy probably says very little. Two and three word phrases are the more useful view, because they reveal the terms people really search for, like "water heater repair".

Common mistakes

• Writing to a word count instead of the reader. A 600 word page that answers the question beats a padded 2,000 word one.
• Checking titles in a word processor. Smart quotes and long dashes sneak in, cost extra characters and can push an SMS into Unicode.
• Forgetting the rest of the page. Titles, descriptions and headings all need attention before launch; the website launch checklist covers every one. To fix heading capitalization in bulk, use the case converter.

Frequently asked questions