"The quick brown fox. The lazy dog!"
7 words, 2 sentences, 34 characters, 28 without spaces.
Word counter
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A word is a run of letters or digits, so hyphenated words and contractions count once. Reading time uses 238 words a minute and speaking time 130, both typical adult averages. Your text stays in your browser.
Words
38
214 characters in 3 sentences. About 0 min 10 s to read and 0 min 18 s to say out loud.
- Characters
- 214
- Characters without spaces
- 176
- Sentences
- 3
- Paragraphs
- 2
- Average words a sentence
- 12.7
- Reading time
- 0 min 10 s
Common limits
- X (Twitter) post214 / 280 characters
- Meta description214 / 160 characters
- Instagram caption214 / 2,200 characters
Most used words
| Word | Times | Share of words |
|---|---|---|
| aloud | 1 | 2.6% |
| characters | 1 | 2.6% |
| counter | 1 | 2.6% |
| counts | 1 | 2.6% |
| cover | 1 | 2.6% |
| daily | 1 | 2.6% |
| essay | 1 | 2.6% |
| here | 1 | 2.6% |
Counting words for limits that matter
Word limits turn up everywhere: a 500-word college essay, a 250-word abstract, a 160-character meta description or a 280-character post. Going over can mean a rejected form or a cut-off message, so it helps to see the count as you write.
This counter treats a word as a run of letters or digits. That matches the way most word processors count, so a contraction such as "don't" is one word and "well-known" is one word. The sentence "The quick brown fox. The lazy dog!" has 7 words, 2 sentences, 34 characters and 28 characters without spaces.
Reading time uses 238 words a minute, the average silent reading speed for adults reading non-fiction in English found in a large 2019 review. Speaking time uses 130 words a minute, a comfortable pace for a talk. A 1,500-word blog post takes about 6 minutes to read.
The most-used words table leaves out short common words like "the" and "and". If one word takes up a large share, the text may feel repetitive, and for web pages it can read as keyword stuffing. Everything stays on your device.
Sources
What this calculator does not account for
- Special rules some sites use, such as counting links as fixed lengths.
- Words in images or attachments.
- Reading speed for technical or non-English text.
How this is calculated
Formula: How the counts work
reading time =words ÷ 238; speaking time =words ÷ 130What the symbols mean
- wordsRuns of letters or digits. Hyphenated words and contractions count once.
- sentencesText ending in a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.
- paragraphsBlocks separated by an empty line.
Good to know
- For speech planning at different paces, use the speech time calculator.
Read the full methodologyFound an error? Contact us
Worked examples
Each example is worked out by the same code as the calculator above.
A 1,500-word article
About 6 min 18 s to read and 11 min 32 s to say out loud.
Embed this calculator
The frame shows the tool only.
<iframe src="/embed/word-counter" title="Word counter" width="100%" height="720" style="border:0;max-width:42rem" loading="lazy"></iframe>Questions
How many words are in a page?
About 500 words single-spaced or 250 double-spaced, in a 12-point font with normal margins.
Do spaces count as characters?
It depends where the limit comes from. Social networks count spaces. Some forms and translation quotes count characters without spaces, so both figures are shown.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes 12 seconds at the adult average of 238 words a minute, and about 7 minutes 42 seconds to say out loud.
Does a hyphenated word count as one or two?
One here, as in most word processors. Microsoft Word and Google Docs count it the same way.
Is my text stored?
No. The counting happens in your browser and nothing you paste is sent anywhere.