Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with reading time, speaking time and your most repeated words.
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type. The counter also estimates how long the text takes to read silently and to say out loud, and lists the words you use most — useful for essays with a word limit, blog posts, speeches and scripts.
How to use this tool
- Paste or type your text into the box — the counts update as you type.
- Leave the reading speed at 238 words per minute or change it to suit your readers.
- Set a speaking pace if the text will be read aloud; 150 words per minute is a common planning figure for talks and voice-overs.
- Check the keyword table for words you repeat too often. Untick the box to include common words such as “the” and “and”.
Formula
Reading time = words ÷ reading speed · Speaking time = words ÷ speaking pace
Both speeds are in words per minute. A word is a run of characters between spaces or line breaks that contains at least one letter or digit, so hyphenated words and contractions (well-known, don’t) count once and a lone dash or bullet is ignored. Han and kana letters count individually as a convention, not linguistic words. Keyword tokens split at punctuation, retain internal apostrophes/hyphens, and supply the unique count, average length and table denominator.
Example
The sample text in the box has 66 words, 392 characters (328 without spaces), 5 sentences and 2 paragraphs. At 238 words per minute it takes about 17 seconds to read (66 ÷ 238 × 60 = 16.6 s); spoken at 150 words per minute it runs 26 seconds. With common words hidden, “sentence” and “words” top the keyword table at 2 uses each — 3.0% of keyword tokens.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my count different from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Each program splits text slightly differently. This counter splits at spaces and line breaks, so “e-mail” and “don’t” are one word each, and numbers such as “2026” count as words. It ignores a standalone “—” or “&”, which some editors include.
Where does the 238 words per minute reading speed come from?
It is the average silent reading rate for adults reading English non-fiction reported in Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 review of reading-speed studies; the same review put fiction at about 260 words per minute. Lower it for technical material.
How many words is a 5-minute speech?
About 750 words at 150 words per minute, or about 600 at a slower 120 words per minute.
How are paragraphs counted?
If your text has blank lines between blocks, each block is one paragraph. If there are no blank lines at all, each non-empty line is treated as a paragraph, which matches text pasted from most word processors.
Sources
Last updated: 2026-10-30