Paragraph Counter
Count paragraphs in your text and see words and sentences per paragraph, with long ones flagged — works with blank-line or line-break spacing.
Count the paragraphs in an essay, article or email and see how they are built: words and sentences per paragraph, the longest and shortest one, and any paragraph over a length you choose. It is a quick check that a piece is broken into readable chunks before you submit or publish it.
How to use this tool
- Paste your text into the box.
- Leave the separator on “Detect automatically”, or choose blank lines or every line break.
- Set the word count at which a paragraph should be flagged as long.
- Use the table to find paragraphs that need splitting or merging.
Formula
Average paragraph length = total words ÷ number of paragraphs
Automatic detection splits at blank lines if the text has any; if it has none, every non-empty line is a paragraph. Lines with no letters or numbers, such as *** dividers, are not counted. Sentences are counted inside each paragraph, so a sentence never spans two paragraphs.
Example
The sample travel text has 3 paragraphs, 61 words and 5 sentences. Paragraphs average 20.3 words (61 ÷ 3) and 1.7 sentences. The second and third paragraphs tie as the longest at 22 words, the first is the shortest at 17, and none comes near the 150-word flag.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a paragraph be?
There is no fixed rule. Academic writing often runs 100–200 words per paragraph, while web pages and emails read better in short blocks of two to four sentences. Set the flag to match the style you are writing in.
Why does my document show the wrong number of paragraphs?
Text copied from a word processor often has single line breaks between paragraphs, while text from web pages and emails often has blank lines. If the automatic choice is wrong, pick the separator yourself.
Does a heading count as a paragraph?
A heading counts separately when the separator isolates it: every-line mode, or blank lines around it in blank-line mode. Remove headings to count only body paragraphs.
Are bullet points counted separately?
With “Every line break”, each bullet is its own paragraph. With “Blank lines”, a list with no blank lines inside it counts as one paragraph.
Last updated: 2026-10-30