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Word Counter
Paste or type your text below and get an instant count: words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and lines, plus how long it takes to read or speak it. Everything runs in your browser — your text never leaves this page.
How it works
Words are counted by splitting the text on whitespace (spaces, tabs, line breaks) and counting the pieces — so "hello world" is 2 words, not 3. Characters counts every character including spaces and line breaks; "without spaces" strips all whitespace first. Sentences are counted from sentence-ending punctuation (. ! ?); a passage with words but no terminator counts as one sentence. Paragraphs are blocks separated by a blank line. Reading time divides the word count by 200 words per minute, the standard average adult silent-reading speed; speaking time divides by 130 words per minute, a typical presentation pace. Worked example: the sample text above has 49 words, so reading time = 49 ÷ 200 = 0.245 minutes ≈ 15 seconds, and speaking time = 49 ÷ 130 = 0.377 minutes ≈ 23 seconds. (Count it yourself: the sample is two paragraphs, three sentences.)
Frequently asked questions
How are words counted?
By splitting on whitespace. Hyphenated words count as one word, numbers count as words, and extra spaces or line breaks do not inflate the count.
What reading speed is used?
200 words per minute, the widely used average for adult silent reading. Fast readers reach 250–300 wpm and careful readers of dense text may read at 150 wpm — the Reading Time Calculator lets you pick your own speed.
Does it count characters with or without spaces?
Both: the headline character count includes spaces and line breaks, and a second figure excludes all whitespace, which is the number most essay and social-media limits use.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. Counting happens entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded, stored, or sent to a server.
Why do different word counters disagree?
Definitions differ: some split on hyphens, some ignore numbers, some count hyphenated compounds as two words. This counter documents its rule above so its counts are reproducible.