Word & Character Counter

Count words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and speaking time. Updates live as you type. Useful for ad copy, social posts, essays, and anything with a length budget.

How to use the Word & Character Counter

Paste text and watch the counts update. The numbers are: words (whitespace-separated), characters (with and without spaces), sentences (by terminal punctuation), paragraphs (double-newline separated), reading time at 250 wpm, speaking time at 130 wpm. The character limits panel shows fit against common platform constraints (Twitter, SMS, meta description, etc.).

Where the numbers come from

Word count splits on whitespace. Character counts are the raw count of Unicode code points (with and without spaces). Sentence count looks for terminal punctuation followed by space or end-of-text; not perfect for abbreviations ("Dr. Smith" counts as one sentence-ending; the tool corrects for common cases). Paragraph count splits on blank lines.

Reading time uses 250 words per minute, the consensus average for adult silent reading of standard prose. Speaking time uses 130 wpm, a presentation pace; conversational speech is faster (~160), audiobook narration slower (~150-170).