Word and Character Counter
Type or paste your text to count words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences and paragraphs instantly. You also get reading and speaking time, keyword density, a reading ease score and live limits for X (Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, SEO titles and SMS. Your text never leaves your browser.
Free · No sign-up
How to use it
- Type in the box, paste your text or open a .txt, Markdown or HTML file.
- Read the live counts at the top: words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time and speaking time.
- Choose a limit, such as an X post, an Instagram caption, a meta description or your essay's word goal, to see how much room is left.
- Open Keyword density to see your most used words and phrases, and use the case tools to tidy the text before copying it.
Why use this tool
Live counts
Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines update with every keystroke, even for long documents.
Reading and speaking time
Based on an average 238 words a minute for silent reading and 140 for a talk or presentation.
Social and SEO limits
Live progress for X (with its weighted count for links and emoji), Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, title tags and meta descriptions.
Keyword density
Your top words and 2- or 3-word phrases with how often they appear, with common words such as "the" left out.
Every language
Counts words correctly in Chinese and Japanese, which have no spaces, and in Russian, German, Spanish and more.
Private
Counting happens in your browser. Your draft is saved on this device only, so a closed tab does not lose your work.
How words and characters are counted
A word is any run of letters or numbers, so "don't", "e-mail" and "2026" each count as one. Punctuation and emoji on their own are not words. Characters include every letter, space, punctuation mark and emoji, and an emoji made of several symbols, such as a family or a flag, counts as one character, just as you see it.
Chinese and Japanese are written without spaces, so the counter uses your browser's built-in dictionary to split the text into words, and also shows the number of CJK characters, which is how these languages are usually measured.
Character limits for social media and SEO
Platforms cut or reject text that runs over their limit. These are the limits in October 2026:
| Where | Limit | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters | Links count as 23, emoji and CJK characters as 2. Premium accounts can post up to 25,000. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters | Only about the first 125 show before "more". Up to 5 hashtags. |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters | About 210 characters show before "see more" on desktop. |
| Threads post | 500 characters | Links count in full. |
| YouTube title | 100 characters | Around 60–70 show in search results. |
| Title tag (SEO) | 50–60 characters | Google cuts titles at about 600 pixels. |
| Meta description | 120–160 characters | Shorter on mobile, about 120. |
| SMS | 160 characters | 70 if the message contains emoji or non-Latin letters. |
How long is…? Common word counts
One single-spaced page holds about 500 words, or 250 double-spaced. A 5-minute speech is about 700 words. Typical lengths are a tweet (up to 50 words), a short blog post (600–1,000 words), an SEO article (1,500–2,500 words), a college admission essay (650 words for the Common App), a short story (1,000–7,500 words) and a novel (70,000–100,000 words).
Frequently asked questions
How do I count words in my text?
Paste the text into the box. The number of words appears at the top straight away and updates as you edit.
Does the character count include spaces?
The main count includes spaces, as X, Instagram and most forms do. Characters without spaces are shown under More statistics.
How is reading time calculated?
Words are divided by 238 a minute, the average silent reading speed of adults. Speaking time uses 140 words a minute. Chinese and Japanese use about 500 and 250 characters a minute.
Why does X show a different number of characters?
X counts each link as 23 characters whatever its length, and counts emoji and Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters as 2. Choose X (Twitter) post as the limit to see the same number X uses.
What is keyword density?
How often a word or phrase appears compared with the total number of words, as a percentage. For SEO, use your main keyword naturally; a density of about 1–2% is normal, and repeating it far more can read as spam.
Is my text saved or uploaded?
No. Everything is counted in your browser and nothing is sent to a server. Your draft is kept in this browser so you can come back to it; press Clear to remove it.
Can I count words in a Word document or PDF?
Open the document, select all the text, copy it and paste it here. The counter opens .txt, Markdown and HTML files directly.
How long should it be? A word count guide
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