Free Word & Character Counter Online
Live word, character, sentence, paragraph, and reading-time counts that update as you type — perfect for hitting essay targets, SEO meta limits, or a post's character cap.
What is Word Counter?
Word Counter tallies your text in real time and shows words, total characters, characters excluding spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and an estimated reading time. The characters-with-and-without-spaces split is what makes it useful for hard limits — a 160-character SMS, a 60-character page title, or a 280-character post — while the word count and reading time help writers hit essay and article targets.
Examples
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It then runs across the wide green field and rests beneath an old oak tree as the warm afternoon sun begins to set slowly behind distant hills.
Words: 34 · Characters: 184 · Characters (no spaces): 151 · Sentences: 2
Every stat recalculates on each keystroke, so you can edit toward an exact target.
Free online word counter with live character, sentence, and reading-time stats.
Characters: 79 — within the ~155-character meta description limit
Search snippets are measured in characters, so the no-spaces and total counts both matter.
How to use this tool
- Type or paste your text into the box.
- Read the live counts above the text.
- Edit your text and watch the stats update.
When to use it
- Hitting a minimum or maximum word count on an essay or assignment.
- Keeping an SEO title under ~60 characters and a meta description under ~155.
- Staying within a social post's character cap, like 280 characters.
- Estimating how long an article will take a reader to get through.
Tips & gotchas
- Watch the characters-excluding-spaces number for fields that ignore whitespace; many platforms count differently than you expect.
- Reading time assumes 200 words per minute, an average pace — technical text reads slower, light text faster.
- Pasting from a word processor can carry hidden line breaks that bump the paragraph count; clean the text if the numbers look off.
- Word counting splits on whitespace, so a hyphenated term like state-of-the-art counts as one word.
Features
- Word and character counts
- Character count excluding spaces
- Sentence and paragraph counts
- Estimated reading time (200 wpm)
- Updates live as you type
Specifications
| Counts | Words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs |
|---|---|
| Reading time | Estimated at 200 words per minute |
| Word rule | Split on whitespace, empty gaps ignored |
| Updates | Live, on every keystroke |
This tool runs in your browser. Your files and text are not uploaded to our servers, and we do not store your input.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between characters with and without spaces?+
Total characters counts every space and line break; characters without spaces counts only visible glyphs. Different platforms enforce different limits, so the tool shows both.
How is reading time calculated?+
It divides the word count by an average reading pace of 200 words per minute. Treat it as a rough estimate that varies with how dense the writing is.
How are words counted exactly?+
Words are found by splitting the text on whitespace and ignoring empty gaps, so multiple spaces or blank lines do not inflate the count.
Does the count update as I type?+
Yes. Every statistic recalculates on each keystroke, so you can trim or expand toward an exact target without pressing a button.
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