Word counter, character count, and text analyzer

Written byOleh Soloninupdated 25 September 2026

Text statistics

Words: 0

Characters (with spaces): 0

Characters (without spaces): 0

Sentences: 0

Paragraphs: 0

Reading time: 0.00 min

Live counts while you write or edit

Count words and characters as you type, with sentence and paragraph totals plus an estimated reading time. Nothing is uploaded.

Word limits are everywhere: essays, meta descriptions, social posts, application forms. Knowing where you stand while writing is easier than trimming afterwards.

For anyone writing for the web, characters matter just as much: titles, descriptions and posts all have length limits, and the counter shows characters both with and without spaces.

How to use

Type or paste your text into the box.
The counts update as you go: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs.
Underneath you get the reading time and the eight most frequent words.

Reading time by length

The counter divides the number of words by 200, the reading speed it assumes per minute.

Every row follows this counter's own formula.
Words	Minutes to read
100	0.5
250	1.25
500	2.5
1,000	5
1,500	7.5
2,000	10
5,000	25

What this calculator shows

Word, character, sentence and paragraph counts
Character count with and without spaces
Estimated reading time at a normal adult pace

What to keep in mind

Reading time is worked out at 200 words per minute.
Anything separated by whitespace counts as a word, so a hyphenated compound is one word and a number or a free-standing dash is one too.

FAQs

How long does 500 words take to read?

Two and a half minutes: the counter works on 200 words per minute.

Do I want characters with or without spaces?

It depends on who set the limit: a translation contract or a platform's rules will say. The maxlength attribute on HTML form fields counts UTF-16 code units, spaces included, which is not always the visible characters: 😀 takes two. The counter shows both figures.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. Counting happens in your browser, so drafts and confidential documents stay on your machine.

How are sentences detected?

By terminal punctuation — full stops, question marks and exclamation marks. Abbreviations like 'e.g.' and decimals written with a point can inflate the count slightly.

How are paragraphs counted?

A paragraph is a block of text separated by a blank line. A single line break does not start a new one.

Which words make the frequency list?

Words of three letters or more, ignoring case and punctuation; the eight most frequent are shown. That keeps out 'a', 'an' and 'of', but 'the' and 'and' still get in.

Worked example

A blog post

Input: 1,200 words

Output: 6 minutes of reading

Note: The counter divides the word count by 200: 1,200 ÷ 200 = 6.

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