Free tools

Word counter

Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time, as you type. Free and no account. Nothing leaves your browser.

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Words

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Characters

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Characters, no spaces

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Sentences

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Paragraphs

0 sec

Reading time

Nothing is uploaded. Everything here runs in your browser.

What it tells you

  • Words and characters

    Both totals, with and without spaces, updating as you type.

  • Sentences and paragraphs

    Plus the average sentence length, which is the number that actually predicts whether a page reads easily.

  • Reading time

    At 238 words per minute, the median adult silent reading rate from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies.

  • Most used terms

    Common words excluded, with each term's share of the total.

How to use it

  1. 1Paste your textDrop any draft into the box. Nothing is uploaded, so it is safe to paste unpublished work.
  2. 2Read the countsWords, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time update on every keystroke.
  3. 3Check the sentence averageUnder about 20 words per sentence reads comfortably. Well above that is usually where a draft gets hard to follow.

Questions people ask

How many words is a page?

About 500 words double spaced, or 250 single spaced, at 12pt. It varies enough with font and margins that if a submission has a page limit you should format to it rather than counting words.

How long should a blog post be?

Long enough to answer the query and no longer. The pages that rank for a term are the honest guide: search it, look at the top five, and match the depth rather than the word count. Padding to hit a number is how a page ends up saying less.

Does word count affect SEO?

Not directly. Google has no minimum, and longer pages correlate with ranking mostly because thorough answers tend to be longer, not because length causes rank. A 400 word page that answers the question fully will beat a 2,000 word one that circles it.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. This runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored or logged, which you can verify by opening your network tab and typing.

Other free tools

Want a tool like this on your own domain?

This page is the argument for the offer. A small useful utility gets embedded and linked, and every embed is a link back. kiterank builds one for your audience and hosts it on your domain, so the links accrue to you rather than to us.