/01 Counting words, characters and reading time
Paste or type text and the counts update as you go — words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs, plus an estimated reading time. Useful for anything with a hard limit, from meta descriptions and social posts to essays and abstracts.
Nothing is submitted anywhere. The text stays in the browser tab, which matters when the thing you are counting is a draft you would rather not paste into a random website.
/02 What the numbers mean
Word counts split on whitespace, so hyphenated compounds count as one word and an em dash between words does not merge them. Character counts are given both ways because platforms differ: most social limits count every character including spaces.
Reading time uses a typical adult silent reading speed of around 200 to 250 words per minute for prose. Dense technical writing runs slower, so treat it as an estimate rather than a promise.
/03 The word and character limits you will actually meet
Most people reach for a word counter because something has a hard limit. A few worth knowing: a post on X allows 280 characters on a standard account, an Instagram caption 2,200 characters, and a LinkedIn post 3,000. A Google search result shows roughly 150 to 160 characters of a meta description before cutting it off. The US Common App personal essay caps at 650 words, and the UCAS personal statement at 4,000 characters including spaces. Journal abstracts usually sit between 150 and 250 words.
Notice that some limits count words and others count characters, and the character ones almost always include spaces. That is why this word counter shows both figures side by side, so you can check against whichever rule applies without doing the maths yourself.
/04 Checking AI-written text and speeches
AI writing tools are poor at hitting an exact length. They generate text in tokens, not words, so asking for 500 words often returns 380 or 640. Paste the output here before submitting it anywhere with a limit, then trim or expand with the count in front of you.
The speaking time figure is for talks, videos and presentations. It assumes 150 words per minute, a comfortable pace for most speakers, so a five-minute talk is about 750 words and a one-minute video script about 150. Reading time uses 200 words per minute for silent reading.