Word counter
Words, characters, sentences, and a reading-time estimate as you type.
This runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
About Word counter
Counts words, characters, and sentences and estimates reading time as you type, entirely in your browser.
Word counts show up on essays, captions, app-store blurbs, and legal clauses with a hard limit. The counters attached to 'we will also grammar-check this in the cloud' are counting as a way to get the document. I wanted the number without the upload.
Words are runs of non-whitespace. Characters are the string length, plus a second tally with whitespace removed. Sentences are a blunt count of runs that end in . ! or ? — abbreviations will fool it, and that is disclosed rather than hidden behind a 'smart' detector that fails on the same cases. Reading time assumes 200 words per minute, rounded to at least one minute once there is any text, which is the usual blog estimate and not a promise about your reader.
There is no grade level, no keyword density, and no 'engagement score'. Those features exist to upsell. If you want Markdown rendered while you write, use the preview. If you want the same draft in another case, use the converter. The count stays local either way.
How to use Word counter
- 1Paste or type into the text panel, or load a .txt file.
- 2Read words, characters, sentences, and reading time in the side panel.
- 3Edit the draft; the numbers follow.
What it won't do
- Whitespace words only — no CJK segmentation.
- Sentence detection will misfire on abbreviations and ellipses.
Common questions
How does the word counter decide what a word is?
Whitespace splits. Hyphenated compounds count as one word. A CJK block without spaces will count as one word, because this is a whitespace counter, not a segmenter for every language.
Why is the reading time at least one minute?
Anything from one word to roughly 200 words is 'about a minute' at 200 wpm. Showing 0.02 minutes is theatre. Empty input shows a dash instead of a time.
Does the word counter treat Markdown syntax as words?
Yes. Hashes, asterisks, and link URLs are characters in the box, so they count. If you want a count of the rendered prose, paste the preview's visible text, not the source.
Related tools
Why this one doesn't upload your file
There is no server to upload to. This page is a static file, and the work happens in your browser using the same graphics and WebAssembly code that renders every other site you visit. Your file is read from disk into memory, processed, and handed back as a download. Once the page has loaded you can disconnect from the network entirely and it keeps working. The longer explanation