Word & Character Count
Live counts for words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and an estimated reading time as you type or paste.
About this tool
Live counts for a block of text as you type or paste: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines, and estimated reading and speaking times. Words are runs of non-whitespace. Characters are counted by Unicode code point, so an emoji or other astral character counts as one, not two. Sentences are counted by end punctuation (. ! ? …); text with none but some content counts as one. Paragraphs are blocks separated by a blank line. Reading time assumes 238 words per minute and speaking time 150.
When to use it
Questions
Why is the character count lower than my editor's?
Characters are counted by code point, so 'A' and an emoji each count as one. Some editors count UTF-16 code units instead, which makes an emoji count as two. Both are defensible; this tool uses the code-point count because that is what a person means by 'characters'.
How is a sentence detected?
By a run of sentence-ending punctuation (. ! ? …) followed by a space or the end of the text. 'Done!!! Next.' is two sentences. Text with content but no terminator counts as one sentence rather than zero. This is punctuation-based, so an abbreviation is a false positive: 'Mr. Smith went home.' counts as two sentences.
Where does the reading time come from?
Words divided by 238 words per minute, a common average for silent reading of prose, rounded to the nearest second. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute. Both are estimates — dense or technical text reads slower.
How are paragraphs counted?
By blank lines: two consecutive newlines (optionally with whitespace between) start a new paragraph. Single line breaks within a block do not. An empty input counts zero paragraphs.