/ wordcounter.lol

Count words and characters as you type

Paste or type your text and every number updates live, with limits for X, Instagram, LinkedIn, texts and meta descriptions. Your words never leave your device.

Count your text

Words
0
Characters
0
Characters without spaces
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0
Lines
0
Reading time
0 sec
at 238 words a minute
Speaking time
0 sec
at 130 words a minute
Average word length
0
letters per word
Longest word
none yet
 

Character limits

  • X post0 / 280
    Counted the way X does: a link is 23, and an emoji or a Chinese, Japanese or Korean character is 2.280 left
  • Instagram caption0 / 2,200
    Characters2,200 left
  • LinkedIn post0 / 3,000
    Characters3,000 left
  • Meta description0 / 160
    Google cuts these by width, usually somewhere from 155 to 160 characters.160 left
  • Text message (SMS)0 / 160
    160 per message. One emoji or special character drops that to 70.160 left
  • 0 / 500
    For essays, forms and ad copy.500 left

Words you use most

    Words you use twice or more show up here.

    How your text stays private

    • Nothing gets sentThe counting runs in this tab. The page's security policy sets connect-src 'none', so your browser won't let it send your text anywhere, not even to us.
    • Saving is off until you want itIf you tick "Keep my draft", your text is saved only in this browser on this device. Untick it or press Clear and the saved copy is gone.
    • Files stay on your deviceWhen you open a .txt or .md file, your browser reads it from your disk into this page. It isn't uploaded.
    • No analytics or cookiesNo tracking scripts, no ads, no account. Our host, Cloudflare, keeps standard logs of page visits, like it does for every site. Your text isn't in them.

    Read every line on GitHub. The counting is our own plain JavaScript plus your browser's built-in text rules. The X counter follows X's open-source twitter-text rules.

    Questions

    How do you count words?

    We use your browser's built-in word rules, which know about many languages. A hyphenated word like well-known is 1 word, and so are don't, U.S.A., 3.14 and 10:30. Dashes and slashes split words, so and/or is 2. A link or email address is 1 word. Emoji and punctuation on their own aren't words.

    Chinese and Japanese don't put spaces between words, so the browser uses its dictionary to find them. That means counts there can differ a little from Word or other apps.

    How do you count characters?

    The way you see them. A family emoji like 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦, a flag like 🇯🇵 or an accented letter like é is 1 character, even when it's stored as several pieces under the hood. Spaces and line breaks count as 1 each, except in "characters without spaces". Instagram, LinkedIn and some other apps may count an emoji as 2, so leave a little room near their limits.

    Why does the X number differ from the character count?

    X weighs characters. Any link counts as 23, however long it is. Each emoji counts as 2, and so does each Chinese, Japanese or Korean character and a few symbols like … and ™. Our X bar follows the counting rules X publishes as open source (twitter-text), rewritten in plain JavaScript. The 280 limit is for free accounts. Paid X accounts can post longer.

    Why does a text message drop from 160 to 70 characters?

    Plain texts use a small, old character set that fits 160 characters per message. One emoji, or one character outside that set (curly quotes, many accented letters), switches the whole message to a bigger character set that fits 70. Longer texts are split into parts of 153 or 67. Many phones now send over iMessage or RCS, which don't have this limit, but plain SMS still does.

    How are sentences, paragraphs and times worked out?

    A sentence ends at a period, question mark or exclamation mark (or the Chinese and Japanese versions), but not after titles like Dr. or Mr. or a single initial. A paragraph is any line with text on it, and blank lines don't count. Reading time assumes 238 words a minute, the average for adults reading non-fiction silently (Brysbaert, 2019). Speaking time assumes 130 words a minute, a steady presentation pace. For Chinese and Japanese, treat both times as rough.

    Is there a size limit?

    Files can be up to 5 MB, and the page opens plain text only (.txt or .md). For Word or PDF files, copy the text and paste it here. Very long texts, like a whole book, update after a short pause so typing stays smooth. A saved draft has to fit in your browser's storage, and the page tells you if it doesn't.

    More free tools, same rules