Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and estimate reading time — live as you type
About this tool
The Word Counter gives you live word, character, sentence, and paragraph counts as you type or paste text, plus reading time and speaking time estimates. It also surfaces the most frequently used words in your text, excluding common stop words — a quick way to spot repetition before publishing. A Readability panel scores your text using the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formulas — the same two readability metrics built into Microsoft Word and used across publishing, education, and plain-language writing guidelines. Both are computed from sentence length and an estimated syllable count, entirely client-side.
When to use it
- →Checking a blog post or article against a publication's word count requirement
- →Verifying a meta description or title fits within a character limit before publishing
- →Estimating how long a presentation script will take to deliver out loud
- →Spotting overused words in a draft before final edits
- →Checking whether a piece of writing matches its intended audience's reading level
Tips
- ◆Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, the commonly cited average adult silent-reading speed.
- ◆Speaking time is estimated at 130 words per minute, closer to a natural spoken pace than reading pace.
- ◆The frequent-words list filters out common stop words (the, and, is, etc.) so it surfaces words that actually reflect your content's topic.
- ◆A Flesch Reading Ease score above 60 is generally considered accessible to a broad general audience — most professional and consumer-facing writing guidelines target 60-70.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time uses a standard estimate of 200 words per minute, a commonly cited average for adult silent reading of general text. It's an estimate — actual reading speed varies by content density, reader familiarity with the topic, and whether the text includes code or technical jargon.
Why is my character count different from what my editor shows?
Character counts can differ based on whether an editor counts newline characters, tab characters, or Unicode combining characters (like accents) as one character or several. This tool counts every character in the string exactly as stored, including whitespace, matching JavaScript's native string length.
Does this tool count words the same way as Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Very close, but not always identical — word counters differ slightly in how they handle hyphenated words, em-dashes, and numbers with punctuation. This tool splits on whitespace, which matches most word processors for standard prose but may count a hyphenated compound word as one word where another tool counts it as two.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. All counting happens in JavaScript in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, which makes it safe to paste unpublished drafts or confidential text.
What's the difference between Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level?
They're computed from the same underlying inputs (words per sentence, syllables per word) but scaled differently. Flesch Reading Ease runs roughly 0-100, where higher means easier to read. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level converts that into an approximate US school grade level — a score of 8 suggests the text is readable by someone with an 8th-grade reading level. Both are estimates based on sentence and word length, not a measure of whether the content itself is well-organized or clearly explained.