A word counter that does more than count words
Paste your text in and you'll see your word and character counts update as you type, alongside sentence and paragraph totals, reading time, speaking time, unique word count, keyword and phrase density, and six readability formulas. There's nothing to install and nothing to sign up for, and there's no limit on how much text you can check.
Who uses a word counter?
Word count requirements by platform
Word count targets vary a lot depending on what you're writing. Blog posts tend to rank best around 1,500 to 2,500 words. College essays usually fall between 500 and 650 words unless your professor says otherwise. LinkedIn posts max out at 3,000 characters, and X (formerly Twitter) caps posts at 280 characters. If you're writing a 5-minute speech, plan for roughly 650 to 700 words. For a closer look at speech timing, see our guides on how many words are in a 5-minute speech and a 2-minute speech.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a word counter, and when do you need one?
A word counter is a tool that tells you how many words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs are in a piece of text, updating as you write. Type or paste your content into the editor above and every number updates instantly, with nothing to install and no account to create. Whether you're finishing an essay, drafting a blog post, writing a tweet, or trimming a cover letter, it's the quickest way to see exactly where your word count stands.
Most people reach for a word counter because something has a limit attached to it. Students need their essays to land within a professor's word range. Journalists have to fit a story into the space an editor has given them. Bloggers aim for that 1,500-to-2,500-word range that tends to perform well in search results. Copywriters juggle character limits across platforms: 280 for X, 2,200 for Instagram captions, 3,000 for LinkedIn posts. Counting any of this by hand is tedious and easy to get wrong, which is exactly the problem this tool solves.
Beyond the basic count, this tool doubles as a quick editing pass. Reading time is calculated at 200 words per minute, the typical pace for silent reading, so you can tell at a glance whether an article will feel like a quick read or a slog. Keyword density flags whether a target phrase shows up at a natural rate (generally 1 to 3%) or has been repeated so often that it reads as stuffed. Readability formulas like Flesch-Kincaid and Gunning Fog estimate the education level your writing requires, and sentence-level highlighting points out passages worth simplifying.
Everything happens locally in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or shared, and once the page has loaded, the tool keeps working even without an internet connection. Word counts, reading time, keyword density, and readability scores are all calculated on your device, instantly and for free.