Text Counter
Words, characters, sentences and paragraphs at once · runs in this tab, never sent anywhere
Text
Paste text into the panel on the left. Every count updates as you type, entirely in this tab.
How the Text Counter works
A word counter that counts everything at once — words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines and UTF-8 bytes — and updates as you type. It also estimates reading and speaking time, tracks the limits people are actually writing against, and lists which words you used most. Counting uses the browser’s own Unicode text segmentation, so Japanese and Chinese are counted by word rather than reported as one enormous word, and contractions are not split in two.
Paste or type into the panel and every count updates at once — words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines and UTF-8 bytes. Nothing has to be pressed.
Counting uses the browser's own Unicode text segmentation rather than splitting on spaces, and the difference is not academic. Japanese and Chinese put no space between words, so a whitespace split reports an entire paragraph as one word; the same split cuts "l'objet" in two. Segmentation knows where words really break in every script the site publishes in, and reading time for CJK is measured in characters per minute rather than words.
The limits panel tracks the caps people actually write against — a 280-character post, a 160-character SMS, a 60-character page title, a 155-character meta description — and the frequency table shows which words you leaned on, which is the quickest way to catch yourself repeating one.
Common questions
How does it count words in Japanese or Chinese?
Correctly, which most word counters do not. Japanese and Chinese put no spaces between words, so counting by splitting on whitespace reports a whole paragraph as one word. This tool uses the browser’s built-in Unicode text segmentation, which knows where words actually break in every script, and it measures reading time for CJK in characters per minute rather than words per minute.
What counts as a sentence or a paragraph?
A sentence is decided by the Unicode sentence-breaking rules, so "Dr. Smith went to Washington D.C. yesterday" is one sentence and not three, and the ideographic full stop is recognised. A paragraph is a block separated by a blank line; if the text has no blank lines at all, each non-empty line is counted as one.
How is reading time calculated?
At 238 words per minute for alphabetic text, which is the median for adult silent reading of general prose, and 400 characters per minute for CJK. Speaking time uses the slower rates a presenter actually manages, around 140 words per minute. They are estimates, not measurements — dense technical writing runs slower than a novel.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Counting is JavaScript running in your own tab, in a Web Worker so a long document does not freeze the page. Disconnect from the network and it keeps working. This matters more than it sounds for a text counter, since the things people count tend to be drafts, cover letters and unpublished writing.
Does it show character counts for Twitter or a meta description?
Yes. The limits panel tracks the caps people are usually writing against — a 280-character post, a 160-character SMS, a 60-character page title and a 155-character meta description — and shows how much room is left in each. The two SEO figures are approximations, since Google truncates on rendered width rather than character count.