Free Word Counter
Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and reading time, updated live. Nothing you type ever leaves your browser.
- Free to use
- No sign-up required
- Runs entirely in your browser
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No spaces
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Estimated reading time: 0 min
Free from the team behind Typeahead. Autocomplete for the Mac apps you write in.
Get TypeaheadWhat is a word counter?
A word counter tallies the words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in a piece of text as you type or paste it in. Writers use one to hit length requirements without switching apps: essay minimums, character-capped headlines, ad copy limits, or a post's target length. This one counts everything live, right in your browser.
Length limits are everywhere.
Word count still matters. According to Backlinko's analysis of Google's top-ranking pages, the average first-page result runs about 1,447 words. Application essays, cover letters, and ad copy all carry their own limits too. Retyping into a word processor just to check a count breaks your flow.
Source: Backlinko, “We Analyzed 11.8 Million Google Search Results”
- Where it matters
- Essays with minimum or maximum word counts, meta descriptions, cover letters, social captions, and any brief with a length requirement attached.
- What the Word Counter does
- Counts words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, and paragraphs in real time, plus an estimated reading time, right in your browser.
Count your words in three steps.
Paste or type your text.
Drop in a draft, or start typing directly into the box.
Watch the counts update.
Words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs update instantly as you type.
Check your reading time.
See an estimated reading time so you know how long the piece takes to get through.
Count sentences and paragraphs too.
Sentences. Counted at each period, question mark, or exclamation point followed by a space or the end of the text.
Paragraphs. Each non-empty block on its own line counts once. Blank lines in between are ignored.
Characters, both ways. One total includes spaces and line breaks. The other strips all whitespace, which is what most form limits use.
Reading time. Your word count divided by 225 words per minute, rounded to the nearest minute.
How many words did I type?
Click into the box and start typing. The Words tile counts up with every keystroke, so you always know how many words you have typed so far, whether that is a 150-word bio or a 1,000-word essay. If what you really want to know is how fast you typed them, that is words per minute, which needs a timer. The Typeahead Typing Speed Test, linked below, times you for one minute and reports your WPM and accuracy.
Know the count. Hit it faster.
Typeahead gets you there in fewer keystrokes, suggesting the rest of your sentence in Word, Mail, Notion, and other Mac apps.
Fewer keystrokes per word. Press Tab to accept a suggestion or keep typing to ignore it. It runs on your Mac and works offline after setup.
Get TypeaheadCommon questions
Type straight into the box, or paste what you wrote, and the Words tile shows the running total. It updates on every keystroke, so you can watch the count climb toward a target without pressing anything.
Paste the paragraph on its own and read the Words tile. A word is any run of characters between spaces or line breaks, so a hyphenated term like 'well-known' counts as one word and a number like '2026' counts as one too.
It counts each period, question mark, or exclamation point that ends a sentence. Decimals like 3.5, web addresses, initials, and common abbreviations such as 'Dr.', 'Mr.', and 'e.g.' are not treated as sentence ends. Unusual abbreviations can still nudge the total, so treat it as a close count rather than an exact one.
Every non-empty block of text that starts on a new line counts as one paragraph. Blank lines between paragraphs are ignored, so double spacing does not inflate the number.
No account, and no limit from us. The counting is done by your own browser, so nothing is metered. Very long documents are fine.
No. The count is calculated on your device and the text is never sent to a server, so there is nothing for us to store.
Your word count is divided by 225 words per minute, a commonly used estimate for adult silent reading, and rounded to the nearest minute with a minimum of one. Dense or technical text will take longer.
It depends on the topic, but Backlinko's analysis of Google's top-ranking pages found the average first-page result runs about 1,447 words. Treat that as a rough benchmark, not a rule.
It counts by splitting on whitespace, so it works well for languages that separate words with spaces. Languages without spaces between words, like Chinese or Japanese, aren't supported yet.
Hit the word count with less typing.
Typeahead suggests the rest of your sentence in your Mac apps, so the count climbs faster.