Word & Character Counter — Free & Instant

What this tool does

Live word, character, sentence and paragraph counts with reading time — for essays, posts, ad copy and AI prompts. Paste your text into the box above and the counts appear instantly. Nothing is uploaded — the analysis runs in your browser.

How to use the tool above

1. Paste or type your text into the box.
2. Read the counts you need: words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time.
3. Edit in place and watch the numbers move — useful when you are writing to a strict limit.

How the counts are worked out

• Words are runs of characters separated by whitespace.
• Characters are counted both with and without spaces, because platforms differ on which they enforce.
• Sentences are counted at sentence-ending punctuation.
• Reading time assumes about 225 words per minute, a normal silent reading pace for general prose.

Why the limits matter

Most places you publish enforce a limit rather than suggest one: meta descriptions get truncated in search results, ad platforms reject overlong headlines, and application forms silently cut text at the boundary. Checking before you paste saves the rewrite.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Counting in a different editor than the one that enforces the limit. Line breaks and emoji can be counted differently.
• Ignoring characters-with-spaces. Many platforms count spaces; some count emoji as two characters.
• Writing to the maximum. Aim slightly under the limit so the ending is never clipped.

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