What gets counted
| Metric | How it is calculated |
|---|---|
| Characters | Every keystroke including spaces, punctuation, and line breaks. |
| Without spaces | Excludes regular spaces, tabs, and line breaks. Useful for printing and tight layouts. |
| Words | Runs of non-whitespace separated by whitespace, the same as Microsoft Word. |
| Sentences | Splits on terminators (. ? !) followed by a space or end of text. Quoted abbreviations may overcount slightly. |
| Paragraphs | Blocks of text separated by one or more blank lines. |
| Reading time | Word count divided by 230 words per minute. |
| Speaking time | Word count divided by 130 words per minute — a comfortable presentation pace. |
Useful character limits
Stay under these limits to avoid truncation in common contexts: SEO title 50–60 characters before Google clips, meta description 150–160, tweet 280, SMS 160 (GSM-7) or 70 (Unicode), image alt text ~125, Instagram caption 2200.
FAQ
How are words counted?
By splitting on whitespace. "Don\'t" counts as one word; "well-known" counts as one word; em dashes split a word in two. This matches Microsoft Word.
Why does my Twitter count differ?
Twitter weights characters differently for non-Latin scripts and counts every URL as 23 characters regardless of length. This tool reports raw character count, which is the most useful baseline.
What is "top words"?
The five most frequent words in your text after removing common stop words (the, and, of, etc.). Useful for spotting filler or measuring keyword density.
Is anything saved?
No. The page never sends your text anywhere — everything happens locally.