Word Counter
Count words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines as you type, with reading and speaking time estimates.
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Words
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Characters
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No Spaces
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Sentences
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Paragraphs
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Lines
0 min
Reading Time (200 wpm)
0 min
Speaking Time (130 wpm)
Times are rounded up to the next whole minute.
About the Word Counter
Type or paste text into the box and the counts update with every keystroke: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines. The counter also estimates reading time at 200 words per minute and speaking time at 130 words per minute, both rounded up to the next whole minute. There is no button to press, and the counting is done by JavaScript in your browser tab.
The rules are simple and predictable. A word is anything between spaces or line breaks, so "well-known" and "3.14" are one word each. A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space or the end of the text, so the full stop in a decimal number doesn't end a sentence. Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by a blank line. Characters are counted as Unicode code points, so a typical emoji counts as one character rather than two.
Typical jobs: checking an essay against a 1,500-word limit, trimming a social media post or form answer to a character limit, or timing a talk. A 650-word speech, for example, shows 5 minutes of speaking time. Once the length is right, the Readability Checker estimates how easy the text is to read, and Keyword Density shows which words you repeat most.
How to use the Word Counter
- 1
Paste or type your text
Click in the box and type, or paste text from any document or web page. The counts update as you type.
- 2
Read the counts
Eight boxes show Words, Characters, No Spaces (characters without whitespace), Sentences, Paragraphs, Lines, Reading Time and Speaking Time.
- 3
Change the case if you need to
UPPERCASE and lowercase convert the whole text. Title Case capitalises the first letter of every word and leaves the other letters as they are.
- 4
Copy your text before leaving
Nothing is saved. Copy the text somewhere else before you close or refresh the page, or press Clear to start again.
What it can do
Live counts
Every number recalculates on each change, so you can watch the word count drop as you edit.
Characters with and without spaces
"Characters" includes spaces and line breaks; "No Spaces" removes all whitespace before counting.
Sentence count that ignores decimals
A full stop inside a number such as 3.14 is not treated as the end of a sentence.
Reading and speaking time
Estimated at 200 and 130 words per minute respectively, rounded up to whole minutes.
Case conversion
UPPERCASE, lowercase and Title Case buttons rewrite the text in the box in one click.
Limitations
- Languages written without spaces between words, such as Chinese, Japanese or Thai, show far too few words. Use the character count for those.
- Only . ! and ? end a sentence, so the Hindi purna viram (।) is not recognised, and abbreviations like "e.g." or "Dr." followed by a space are counted as sentence endings.
- Reading and speaking times are rough averages. Technical text is read more slowly, and real speakers vary.
- Your word processor may give a slightly different number, because editors treat dashes, URLs and stray symbols differently.
- Text is not saved; refreshing or closing the page clears it.
Privacy
The text you type or paste is counted by JavaScript in your browser and is never uploaded to FlexyPdf's servers.
Frequently asked questions
Does the character count include spaces?
The "Characters" box counts everything, including spaces and line breaks. The "No Spaces" box removes all whitespace (spaces, tabs and line breaks) and counts what is left. Most character limits on websites and forms include spaces, so "Characters" is usually the number you need.
Why is my count slightly different from my word processor's?
Counting rules differ between editors. Here, a word is anything separated by whitespace, so two words joined by a dash with no spaces count as one, and a lone symbol surrounded by spaces counts as one. On a long document the difference is usually a handful of words.
How is the reading time worked out?
The word count is divided by 200 words per minute and rounded up, so 201 words shows 2 min. Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, a moderate pace for a presentation. Treat both as a guide rather than a stopwatch.
Can it count words in Hindi or other languages?
Words are split on spaces whatever the script, so word and character counts work for Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Spanish and other languages that use spaces. The sentence count only recognises . ! and ?, so Hindi text that ends sentences with । is counted as a single sentence.
Does Title Case follow a style guide?
No. It capitalises the first letter of every word, including short words such as "of" and "the", and leaves other letters unchanged, so acronyms like PDF stay in capitals. Lowercase the small words by hand if your style guide requires it.
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