Free Word Counter

Count words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, and paragraphs as you type — plus estimated reading and speaking time. Built for students hitting essay limits, writers matching briefs, and SEOs sanity-checking content length.

What it measures

Beyond the headline word count, you get character counts (handy for meta descriptions, tweets, and SMS limits), sentence and paragraph counts (a quick proxy for structure), and reading-time estimates based on 200–250 words per minute. Speaking time uses ~150 wpm — useful for presentations and video scripts.

Word count benchmarks worth knowing

College essays commonly target 500–650 words; X/Twitter posts cap at 280 characters; meta descriptions should stay under ~155 characters; LinkedIn posts perform well at 150–300 words. Paste your draft here first, then trim with our text summarizer if you're over.

Frequently asked questions

How many words should a blog post be?
Match the intent — 300 words can win for news, competitive guides often need 1,500+.

How is reading time calculated?
200–250 wpm for reading, ~150 wpm for speaking.

Is my text sent to a server?
No — everything runs in your browser.

Last updated: October 2026. Also try our AI content detector, readability checker, and keyword density checker.