Free Online Word Counter

Paste or type your text below to instantly see word count, character counts, sentence and paragraph counts, and an estimated reading time. Fast, private, and free.

Words0
Sentences0
Characters (with spaces)0
Characters (no spaces)0
Paragraphs0
Reading time0 min

About this Word Counter

This free word counter is a simple, fast, and private tool built for writers, students, bloggers, and SEO professionals. It performs live calculations as you type or paste your text and gives you instant insights that help with editing, meeting word limits, and estimating reading time for your audience.

How it helps

Use the word counter when you need to meet assignment or submission limits, check character counts for social posts, or evaluate reading time for web content. The tool runs entirely in your browser — no server upload — so your text stays on your device. Buttons let you copy text to clipboard, clear the editor, or download your work as a .txt file for quick backups.

Detailed explanation

The counters are implemented using lightweight JavaScript that analyzes the text using regular expressions and simple logic. Word count splits on whitespace and punctuation boundaries to approximate words; character counts are provided both with and without spaces for clarity when platforms impose different limits; sentence detection uses punctuation markers like period, exclamation, and question marks to estimate sentence boundaries; while paragraph count counts newline blocks separated by one or more blank lines.

Reading time is estimated using a conservative average reading speed (200 words per minute), which is useful for planning audio narration length, podcasts, or blog post engagement.

FAQ

How accurate is the word count?

The counter is accurate for most standard English text. Edge cases (hyphenated words, URLs, or special punctuation) are handled reasonably but may vary depending on formatting.

Do you store my text?

No — all processing happens in your browser and nothing is sent to a server by default.

Can I use this for SEO writing?

Yes — the tool helps with word/character limits and reading time, useful for planning SEO-friendly content lengths.

Can I download the text?

Yes — use the "Download .txt" button to save your current text as a .txt file.