Word Counter

What this word counter does

Paste or type into the box above and six figures update on every keystroke: words, characters with spaces, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and estimated reading time. There is no submit button and no page reload, so you can watch a draft approach a target length as you write.

The whole tool is client-side JavaScript. That matters for more than speed: text you paste never leaves your machine, so the counter is safe to use on unpublished work, client material and anything covered by an NDA.

Common length limits worth knowing

Most people reach for a word counter because something has a ceiling. A few that come up constantly:

• Meta description: renders reliably up to roughly 155–160 characters in Google results.
• Title tag: around 60 characters before truncation.
• X / Twitter post: 280 characters on a free account.
• Google Ads headline: 30 characters.
• University essay: commonly a 10 percent tolerance either side of the stated count — check your handbook.

Words, characters, or reading time — which should you track?

Use words for essays, articles and anything with an academic or editorial brief. Use characters for anything that renders in a fixed slot: meta tags, social posts, ad copy, database fields, SMS. Use reading time when you are writing for attention rather than a specification — a blog post that reads in four minutes behaves very differently from one that reads in fifteen, regardless of the word count behind it.

Frequently asked questions

Is this word counter free?

Yes. There is no signup, no account and no usage limit. The tool is a single page of JavaScript that runs in your browser.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. All counting happens locally in your browser. Nothing you paste is transmitted to a server, logged or stored, which makes the tool safe for unpublished drafts, client work and confidential documents.

Why does my word count differ from Microsoft Word?

Different tools disagree on edge cases. This counter splits text on whitespace, so a hyphenated term like "self-taught" counts as one word and an em dash surrounded by spaces counts as none. Word treats some of these differently. On ordinary prose the two agree to within about one percent.

How is reading time calculated?

Reading time assumes 225 words per minute, which is a common average for adult silent reading of general non-technical text. Dense technical writing is usually slower, so treat the figure as an estimate rather than a measurement.

How are sentences counted?

A sentence boundary is any period, exclamation mark, question mark or line break. This means abbreviations such as "e.g." or "Dr." will inflate the count slightly. Paragraphs are counted on blank lines.

More free developer tools

Dropout Developer hosts a growing set of free, no-signup utilities for self-taught developers: the Word Counter, the LLM Token Counter, the JSON Formatter & Validator, plus our AI Code Generator and AI Project Generator.