Word & Character Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time as you type. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere or stored.
How to use the word counter
- Type directly in the box, or paste text you have written elsewhere.
- Watch the cards update live — words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time all refresh as you edit.
- Use Characters (with spaces) for hard limits like tweets and meta descriptions, and Characters (no spaces) where spacing is ignored.
Reading time assumes about 200 words per minute, a typical silent-reading pace for general text. Sentences are counted from
., ! and ?, and paragraphs are blocks of text separated by blank lines.
More PAYATE tools
Frequently asked questions
How are words counted?
The text is trimmed and split on runs of whitespace (spaces, tabs and line breaks); each remaining chunk counts as one word, and empty pieces are ignored. This matches how most word processors count, so numbers, hyphenated terms like state-of-the-art and standalone symbols each count as a single word.
Is the reading time accurate, and how is it calculated?
Reading time is an estimate: it divides the word count by 200 words per minute, a common average for silent reading of general text. It is shown as seconds under a minute (for example 45 sec) and as whole minutes above that (for example 3 min). Your own pace, and technical or dense material, can move the real time up or down.
Do you count spaces?
Both. Characters (with spaces) counts every character including spaces, tabs and line breaks, while Characters (no spaces) removes all whitespace first. Use the no-spaces figure for limits that ignore spacing, and the with-spaces figure for hard character limits such as social posts and meta descriptions.
Is my text stored or sent anywhere?
No. All counting runs entirely in your browser with JavaScript — nothing is uploaded to a server and nothing is stored. You can safely paste private or unpublished writing.
What counts as a sentence?
A sentence is counted for each group of sentence-ending marks — a period ., exclamation mark ! or question mark ?. Runs like ?! or ... count once, so ellipses and emphatic punctuation do not inflate the total. This is a close approximation, not full grammar parsing, so abbreviations such as e.g. may nudge the count.
Is there a character limit?
There is no fixed limit imposed by the tool — you can paste short snippets or long documents. Counting happens live as you type, so very large pastes update near-instantly on any modern device.