Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and more — in real time.
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When to use this
You're staring at a college essay prompt that says "500-750 words" and you have no idea if you're close. You're drafting a LinkedIn post and need to stay under 3,000 characters. You're writing product descriptions that need to hit exactly 150 words for your CMS template. Word counting is one of those tasks that's trivially easy to automate and surprisingly annoying to do manually.
Writers, students, and content marketers are the heaviest users. But it's also useful for anyone preparing a speech (word count determines duration), writing meta descriptions (Google truncates after ~155 characters), or meeting submission requirements for grants, applications, or competitions.
The reading time estimate is the hidden gem. If you're publishing online, showing "5 min read" at the top of an article measurably improves engagement — readers commit when they know the time investment upfront.
Good to know
Reading time uses 238 words per minute. That's the average silent reading speed for adults, based on a meta-analysis of 190 studies. It's more accurate than the commonly cited 200 or 250 WPM figures that float around the internet.
Speaking time uses 150 words per minute. That's a comfortable conversational pace — ideal for presentations, podcasts, and speeches. TED Talks average about 163 WPM, so 150 gives you a slight buffer for pauses and emphasis.
"Characters without spaces" matters more than you think. Some platforms (like SMS) count characters including spaces, while others (like certain CMS fields) count without. This tool shows both so you never have to guess.
Sentences ≠ periods. The counter handles abbreviations (Dr., U.S., etc.) and decimal numbers without miscounting them as sentence boundaries. It's smarter than a simple period-split.
Quick Reference
| Platform / Context | Limit | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X post | 280 | Characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | Characters |
| Meta description (SEO) | 155–160 | Characters |
| Google Ads headline | 30 | Characters |
| Google Ads description | 90 | Characters |
| SMS (single segment) | 160 | Characters |
| College essay (typical) | 500–750 | Words |
| Blog post (SEO sweet spot) | 1,500–2,500 | Words |
| 5-minute speech | ~750 | Words |