Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time instantly.
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The Word Counter counts the words in your text and, in the same click, shows characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and an estimated reading time. Paste an essay, answer, cover letter or post, press Count words, and the six figures appear as cards below the box.
What counts as a word
A word is any run of characters between spaces, tabs or line breaks. This matches how most word processors count and gives predictable results:
- Hyphenated terms count once:
state-of-the-artande-mailare one word each. - Contractions count once:
don'tis one word. - Anything separated by spaces counts, including symbols:
₹ 500is two words, and a dash typed with spaces around it (—) is counted as a word too. So is an emoji standing on its own.
For example, state-of-the-art e-mail ₹ 500 — don't 👋 counts as 7 words. Other editors may treat dashes and symbols slightly differently, so a difference of a word or two between tools is normal.
Reading the six results
| Card | How it is calculated |
|---|---|
| Words | Space-separated items, as above |
| Characters | Everything, including spaces and line breaks |
| Chars (no spaces) | All characters except spaces, tabs and line breaks |
| Sentences | Runs of text ending in . ? or ! |
| Paragraphs | Blocks separated by a blank line |
| Reading time | Words ÷ 200, rounded, minimum 1 minute |
A worked example: Many small shops in India now accept UPI payments, even for ₹10 purchases. Customers scan a QR code and pay in seconds. gives 22 words, 119 characters, 98 characters without spaces and 2 sentences. Most emoji count as two characters in the character figures, because they are stored as two code units.
Word limits you are likely to meet
- UPSC Mains: General Studies answers are commonly set at 150 or 250 words depending on the marks.
- University and school work: essays, abstracts and statements of purpose usually come with a limit; staying within 10% either side is a common expectation, but check your institution's rule.
- Job applications: a cover letter that fits on one page is roughly 250 to 400 words.
Social platforms use character limits instead: 280 for a post on X, 150 for an Instagram bio and 2,200 for an Instagram caption. For those, read the Characters card.
Trimming text that runs over
Cut filler phrases first: "in order to" becomes "to", "due to the fact that" becomes "because", and "at this point in time" becomes "now". Remove repeated ideas, then split long sentences, which often exposes words you do not need. Reading time uses a flat 200 words per minute; for speeches or a different reading speed, the reading time calculator lets you set the rate, and the words to pages converter estimates how many pages your count will fill.