Word Counter
Paste or type your text below — words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time update live as you type. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
0 Words
0 Characters
0 Chars (no spaces)
0 Sentences
0 Paragraphs
0 sec Reading time
Platform limits (characters)
- X (Twitter) 0 / 280
- Instagram caption 0 / 2200
- LinkedIn post 0 / 3000
- Meta description 0 / 160
- Facebook post 0 / 63206
How to use the word counter
Type or paste your content into the box. Every metric updates instantly with no button to press. The platform-limit bars fill as your character count approaches each platform's cap — green below 75%, amber at 75–90%, red above 90%.
What is counted
- Words — sequences of non-whitespace characters separated by spaces, tabs or newlines. Numbers and hyphenated words count as one word each.
- Characters (with spaces) — every Unicode codepoint including spaces and punctuation. This is the number most social platforms use for their character limits.
- Characters (no spaces) — codepoints excluding all whitespace. Useful for SEO character budgets and academic character targets.
- Sentences — runs of text ending in ". ! ?" followed by a space or end-of-input.
- Paragraphs — blocks of text separated by one or more blank lines.
- Reading time — word count ÷ 200 words per minute (average adult web-reading pace).
Platform character limits
| Platform / context | Character limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) | 280 | URLs count as 23 characters regardless of length. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Only the first 125 chars show without "more". |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | First 210 chars visible before "see more". |
| Meta description | ~160 | Google may truncate at ~160 chars; aim for 120–155. |
| Facebook post | 63,206 | Long posts collapse; ideal length is under 500 chars. |
Frequently asked questions
- How are words counted?
- Words are sequences of non-whitespace characters separated by spaces, tabs or newlines. Numbers ("123"), hyphenated words ("well-being") and contractions ("don't") each count as one word. Empty lines and leading/trailing whitespace do not add words.
- How is reading time calculated?
- Reading time uses 200 words per minute, which is the average adult silent-reading pace for web content. Academic research (Trauzettel-Klosinski & Dietz, 2012) puts the mean at 200–300 wpm; 200 wpm gives a comfortable estimate that does not undercount.
- Does character count include spaces?
- Both counts are shown. "Characters (with spaces)" is the total codepoint count, which is what most platforms (X, Instagram, LinkedIn) use for their character limits. "Characters (no spaces)" excludes whitespace, which is useful for SEO character budgets where spaces do not contribute to keyword density.
- Is my text sent to a server?
- No. All counting runs in your browser with JavaScript. Your text never leaves your device.
- Why do sentences sometimes seem undercounted?
- Sentence detection splits on ". ! ?" followed by whitespace or end-of-input. Abbreviations like "Dr." or "U.S.A." inside a sentence can look like sentence boundaries — this is a known limitation of punctuation-based counting. For a precise count in a final document, always do a manual review.