Free Online Word Counter and Character Counter

This word counter lets you count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs instantly, right in your browser — no software, no sign-up, and no upload to a server. Paste an essay, a blog draft, a social media caption, or a business email, and every number updates as you type: total words, characters with and without spaces, sentence count, paragraph count, estimated reading time, and estimated speaking time. It also flags your top five most-repeated words so you can catch accidental keyword stuffing before you publish.

Most people land here for one of three reasons: they need to hit an exact word count for an essay or assignment, they need to fit a message inside a platform's character limit, or they want to know how long a piece of writing will take to read or speak aloud. This tool is built to answer all three without switching tabs.

How to Check Word Count in Google Docs

Google Docs has jumped to become one of the most common places people need a word count, so here's the fastest way to see it without leaving your document:

1. Keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows/Chromebook, or Cmd+Shift+C on Mac, to open the built-in word count box instantly.
2. Menu method: Click Tools → Word count in the top menu.
3. Live counter while typing: Inside that same word count box, tick "Display word count while typing" so a running total stays visible in the bottom-left corner of the page as you write.
4. Count only a selection: Highlight a specific paragraph or section before opening the word count box, and Google Docs will show the count for just that selection alongside the document total.

Google's own counter is fine for a quick total, but it won't show you keyword density, paragraph count, or how long the piece will take to read aloud. For that, copy your draft out of Google Docs and paste it into the tool above — nothing you paste is uploaded anywhere; the counting happens entirely in your browser.

Character Limits by Platform: Where Exact Counts Matter

A word count alone doesn't tell you whether your text will fit — most platforms enforce a strict character limit instead. Use the limit checker above to test against these common caps:

• X (Twitter) post: 280 characters per tweet.
• Instagram bio: 150 characters; Instagram caption: up to 2,200 characters, though only the first couple of lines show before "more."
• LinkedIn post: 3,000 characters; LinkedIn headline: 220 characters.
• SMS text message: 160 characters per single message segment before it splits into multiple texts.
• SEO title tag: roughly 60 characters before Google truncates it in search results.
• Meta description: roughly 155–160 characters for the same reason.
• YouTube video title: 100 characters, though titles under 60 characters display fully on more devices.

If your caption or thread runs long, our Caption & Tweet Thread Splitter automatically breaks long text into platform-ready chunks, and our Social Media Bio Generator helps you write within the 150-character Instagram bio limit from scratch.

Word Count Rules for Essays, Applications, and Academic Writing

Academic and application writing usually comes with a hard word count you can't ignore. Some of the most commonly searched limits:

• IELTS Writing Task 1: minimum 150 words. Task 2: minimum 250 words — going under costs marks, going well over wastes time you need for accuracy.
• Common App essay (US college applications): maximum 650 words.
• IB Extended Essay: maximum 4,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, and appendices.
• UK personal statement (UCAS): limited by both 4,000 characters and 47 lines, whichever comes first — this is a case where the character count matters more than the word count.
• Undergraduate dissertation: typically 8,000–12,000 words; Master's dissertation: often 15,000–20,000 words, though this varies heavily by university and subject.

Paste your draft into the counter above as you write to track your total against whichever limit applies, instead of guessing or counting manually at the end.

Typical Word Counts for Books and Novels

Writers drafting a manuscript often want to know if their length is normal for the genre. As a general reference:

• Novella: 20,000–50,000 words.
• Romance novel: 50,000–90,000 words.
• Young adult (YA) novel: 50,000–80,000 words.
• Fantasy or science fiction novel: 90,000–120,000 words, sometimes higher for epic fantasy.
• Literary or general fiction: 70,000–100,000 words.
• Memoir or narrative nonfiction: 70,000–90,000 words.

These are norms, not rules — plenty of published books sit outside these ranges — but they're a useful sanity check while drafting.

Reading Time and Speaking Time: How They're Calculated

The reading time on this tool is based on an average adult silent-reading speed of about 225 words per minute — a commonly used benchmark for blog posts and articles. Speaking time is calculated at roughly 140 words per minute, which reflects a natural, unhurried speaking pace suitable for presentations, voiceovers, and speeches; a faster or more rehearsed speaker may cover the same script in less time.

If you want to measure your own personal reading speed rather than relying on an average, our Reading Speed & Understanding Score Tool times you against a passage and scores your comprehension, which is more accurate than a flat words-per-minute assumption.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can I use this tool to count words in Google Docs?

Yes. Google Docs has its own counter under Tools → Word count, but copying your text here also gives you paragraph count, keyword density, and reading/speaking time, which Google Docs doesn't show.

2. Is this character counter free to use?

Yes, completely free, with no daily limit, no account, and no watermark on the results.

3. Is my text private when I paste it here?

Yes. All counting happens with JavaScript directly in your browser — your text is never uploaded to a server or stored anywhere.

4. What's the difference between word count and character count?

Word count totals complete words ("Hello world" = 2 words). Character count totals every individual letter, number, punctuation mark, and space ("Hello world" = 11 characters with spaces, 10 without).

5. How is reading time different from speaking time?

Reading time estimates how long it takes someone to read the text silently (around 225 words per minute). Speaking time estimates how long it takes to read the same text aloud at a natural pace (around 140 words per minute), which is why a 500-word script reads in about 2 minutes but takes closer to 3.5 minutes to speak.

6. Does this tool count paragraphs?

Yes — paragraphs are counted based on line breaks in your text, so pasting content with its original formatting (rather than one long unbroken block) gives you an accurate paragraph count.