About Word Counter
This tool counts words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in real time as you type or paste text. It also estimates reading and speaking time, which can be useful for essays, blog posts, speeches, descriptions, and captions.
Reading time is estimated using 200 words per minute, and speaking time is estimated using 130 words per minute as a practical baseline.
Common word count guidelines
- Twitter/X posts: 280 characters
- Meta description (SEO): 150-160 characters
- Instagram captions: up to 2,200 characters, but 125-150 performs best
- Blog post (SEO-friendly): 1,000-2,000+ words for competitive topics
- Cover letter: 250-400 words
Frequently Asked Questions
Word count is calculated by trimming the text and splitting it on whitespace, so groups of letters, numbers, or symbols separated by spaces are each counted as one word.
Characters counts every character including spaces and line breaks. Characters without spaces excludes whitespace, useful for platforms with strict character limits.
Reading time uses an average speed of 200 words per minute, a commonly used baseline for adult silent reading of general text.
Speaking time uses 130 words per minute since spoken delivery is naturally slower than silent reading — useful for timing speeches or video scripts.
Sentences are counted by splitting on periods, question marks, and exclamation marks. Paragraphs are counted by splitting on line breaks.
No, all counting happens locally in your browser as you type. Your text is never sent to a server and disappears once you close or refresh the page.