Word Counter
Count words, characters and sentences as you type, in any script.
Your files stay on your device
- 0
- Words
- 0
- Characters
- 0
- No spaces
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Reading time
How to use Word Counter
- Type or paste your text into the box. Counting starts straight away.
- Read the counts above the box: words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time.
- Watch characters without spaces when a form caps the length of an answer.
- Use Copy to take the text back out, or Clear to start again.
How each number is counted
- Words are found by splitting on spaces and line breaks, and anything with no letter or digit in it is ignored. A hyphenated term such as "self-attested" counts as one word; a stray dash on its own counts as none. Word and Google Docs count the same way.
- Characters are counted the way you would count them by eye, so one emoji is one character, and a Devanagari consonant with its matras attached is one character rather than three.
- Sentences are split on the full stop, question mark, exclamation mark, danda (।) and double danda (॥).
- Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by one or more line breaks. Empty lines are not counted.
- Reading time is words divided by 200, the usual silent reading speed for an adult, rounded up. Below a minute it is shown in seconds.
A worked example
Paste "मैं कल दिल्ली जाऊँगा। आप कहाँ हैं?" and you get 7 words, 2 sentences and 1 paragraph. The danda ends the first sentence and the question mark ends the second. The same text in English, "I am going to Delhi tomorrow. Where are you?", gives 9 words and the same 2 sentences.
Limits worth knowing
- Abbreviations push the sentence count up. "Dr. Sharma arrived." counts as two sentences, because no counter can tell an abbreviation from a sentence ending without understanding the language.
- Past about 120,000 characters the tool switches to a simpler way of counting characters so it stays responsive. The difference only shows up with emoji and complex scripts.
- Languages written without spaces, such as Japanese and Thai, will not give a meaningful word count here.
- Nothing is saved. Reloading the page clears the box, so copy out anything you want to keep.
Frequently asked questions
How do you decide what counts as a word?
The tool uses your browser built-in word segmentation where it can, so it finds real word boundaries instead of just splitting on spaces. On older browsers it splits on spaces. A hyphenated term like "self-attested" counts as one word either way.
Does it count Hindi and Gujarati correctly?
Yes. Devanagari and Gujarati words are separated by spaces just as English words are, so they count correctly. The sentence counter also treats the danda (।) and double danda (॥) as endings.
What counts as a sentence?
Text ending in a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark, danda or double danda, followed by a space or the end of the text. Abbreviations like "Dr." will push the count up slightly.
How is reading time worked out?
Words divided by 200, the usual silent reading speed for an adult, rounded up to the next minute. If you are reading aloud, assume about 130 words a minute instead.
Why does Microsoft Word show a different character count?
Word counts in UTF-16 units, so an emoji or some Indic clusters count as two. This tool counts what you would count by eye. A difference of a few characters on long text is normal.