Word & Character Counter
Instantly count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimate reading and speaking time. Paste or type your text below — results update live.
Statistics
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Words
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Characters
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No Spaces
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Sentences
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Paragraphs
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Lines
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Reading Time
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Speaking Time
About This Counter
This word and character counter is fully client-side — your text never leaves your browser. It supports Unicode text including emoji, CJK characters, and mixed scripts. The reading time estimate uses 225 WPM (adjustable), and speaking time uses 130 WPM, both industry-standard averages.
Use the platform dropdown to see a live remaining-characters counter for popular platforms like X/Twitter (280), SMS (160), or Instagram captions (2,200).
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you count words accurately?
Words are counted as runs of non-whitespace characters, using a Unicode-aware whitespace split. This correctly handles spaces, tabs, newlines, and zero-width spaces. Hyphenated words like "real-time" count as one word.
Does this tool store my text?
No. Your text is processed entirely in your browser and is never sent anywhere or saved — the box starts empty every time you load the page.
What reading speed does the calculator use?
The default reading speed is 225 words per minute — a commonly cited average for silent reading of English text. Speaking time uses 130 WPM. Both can be overridden. These are estimates; actual speed varies by reader and content complexity.
Why do character counts differ between platforms?
Different platforms count characters differently. Twitter treats some Unicode characters as 2 characters. SMS encoding depends on the character set (GSM-7 or UCS-2). This tool counts Unicode code points. Use the SMS Character Counter for SMS-specific counting.