Word & Character Counter
Paste any text below to instantly see its word count, character count, sentence count, and estimated reading time. Everything runs locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded or stored.
How to use the Word Counter
Paste or type your text into the box above. The word count, character count, sentence count, and estimated reading time update automatically as you type — no button click needed.
Why use a word counter?
Whether you're writing an essay with a strict word limit, drafting a tweet or meta description with a character cap, or checking how long an article will take to read, this tool gives you an instant, accurate count as you write, rather than counting manually or waiting until you're done.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time estimated?
Reading time is calculated based on an average adult reading speed, giving you a rough estimate of how long the text would take to read aloud or silently.
Does it count words in other languages?
The counter works by detecting spaces and punctuation, so it works reasonably well for most space-separated languages. Languages that don't use spaces between words (like Chinese or Japanese) may not be counted the same way as English.
Is my text stored anywhere?
No. This tool is part of the Toolyard collection of free, browser-based utilities. All counting happens locally in your browser — nothing you type is uploaded to or stored on a server.
Why word and character limits exist
Twitter/X caps posts at 280 characters, Instagram captions cut off after 2,200, Google's meta description snippets get truncated around 155-160 characters, and most academic essays specify a word count range rather than a page count. Writers, students, and social media managers all end up needing a quick, accurate count more often than a full word processor makes convenient — especially when copy is being pasted from an email or a Google Doc that formats things differently.
What gets counted, and how
Word count is calculated by splitting text on whitespace, so hyphenated words and contractions count as one word each. Character count includes spaces by default in most tools; if a platform's limit excludes spaces (some do), subtract your space count separately. Reading time estimates are generally based on an average adult reading speed of about 200-250 words per minute, so a 500-word blog post takes roughly two to two-and-a-half minutes to read.
Who uses this most
Students checking essay length against an assignment's requirements, content writers hitting a client's word count target, SEO writers keeping meta descriptions within Google's display limit, and social media managers trimming captions to fit platform rules are the most common use cases — but it's just as handy for anyone who wants a quick sanity check before hitting send.