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Count words, characters and reading time
Counts words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and lines as you type, and estimates reading time at a speed you can set.
How to use it
- 1Paste the text you want to measure into the input box.
- 2Every count updates as you type — there is no button to press.
- 3Set the reading speed if 200 words per minute is not the one you want.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a word counted?
- By runs of non-whitespace, which is the same rule Google Docs and Word use for their status bar. Hyphenated compounds count as one word; "don't" counts as one.
- Why does my character count differ from the one in the form I am filling in?
- Usually because of what each side counts. This page reports characters with and without spaces separately; line breaks count as characters here, and some forms count a CRLF line ending as two. If a limit is tight, use the with-spaces figure — it is the conservative one.
- How is reading time calculated?
- Words divided by the speed you set, defaulting to 200 words per minute — the usual estimate for adult silent reading of general prose. Technical material runs slower and speech runs slower still, around 130 words a minute, which is the number to use for a talk.
- Does it work for Chinese or Japanese?
- The character counts do, and those are the numbers that matter for CJK. The word count does not: languages without spaces between words need a segmenter, and pretending otherwise would give you a confidently wrong figure.