What counts as a word?

A word is any sequence of characters separated by whitespace. Hyphenated words count as one word. Numbers count as words. Chinese and Japanese have no spaces between words, so each Chinese or Japanese character counts as one word.

What statistics does this word counter show?

Word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentence count and paragraph count. Numbers update instantly as you type. All counting happens in your browser.

Can I count words in a specific section?

Paste only the section you want to measure. The counts always cover the whole text in the box.

Is my text sent to a server?

All counting runs in your browser. Our servers are not involved at any point.

Word counter

Word counter is a text tool that counts words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in any text. It updates live as you type, shows the character count with and without spaces, and counts each Chinese or Japanese character as one word. The tool runs in your browser.

Text input

COUNT

Runs entirely in your browser

Dedicated pages

Direct links for each count type.

Word count

Count the number of words in any text instantly. Paste your text and get an accurate word count. All processing runs in your browser.

Character count

Count characters in your text instantly, including spaces and punctuation. Ideal for social media posts, bios, and form field limits. Runs in your browser.

Characters (no spaces)

Count characters excluding spaces and whitespace. Great for comparing raw text lengths, whatever the spacing. Runs in your browser.

Sentence count

Count the number of sentences in your text. Useful for readability analysis, academic writing, and content editing. Runs in your browser.

Paragraph count

Count paragraphs in your text: blocks separated by one or more blank lines, while single line breaks stay inside a paragraph. Runs in your browser.

Word count for essays

Check the word count of your essay against common academic word limits. Counts words, characters, and paragraphs instantly in your browser.

Word count for SEO content

Count the words in a blog post, landing page or article before publishing, and compare its length with pages that already rank. Runs in your browser.

Essay Word Counter

Count words in your essay live as you type, with characters, sentences and paragraphs alongside. Copy the word count in one click. Runs in your browser.

How to count words in text

Paste or type your text into the input area.
The word, character, sentence and paragraph counts update instantly as you type.
Review the statistics in the summary bar.
Clear the input to start a fresh count.

Common uses

Checking that a blog post, essay, or article meets a specific word count requirement, then check the readability score to ensure the text is accessible
Checking length before publishing content online, then estimating how long it takes to read with the reading time estimator
Counting characters for social media posts with strict character limits, use Lorem Ipsum generator to fill a template before you have real copy

Technical specification

Algorithm or formula: Words = sequences split by whitespace regex (/\s+/), with each Chinese or Japanese character counted as one word. Sentences = splits on terminating punctuation (.!?…) followed by a space or the end of the text, and on Chinese and Japanese full stops; segments with no letter or digit are not counted. Paragraphs = splits on blank lines.
Browser API or library: Pure JavaScript with native string methods and regular expressions.
Input limits: No hard cap; tested with documents up to 1 MB without delay.
Output: Word, character (with and without spaces), sentence and paragraph counts.
Known limitations: Word definition is whitespace-based outside Chinese and Japanese; punctuation-attached tokens (e.g., "well-known") count as one word. Sentence detection is heuristic and may misjudge abbreviations like "Mr." or "e.g.".

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a word?: A word is any sequence of characters separated by whitespace. Hyphenated words count as one word. Numbers count as words. Chinese and Japanese have no spaces between words, so each Chinese or Japanese character counts as one word.
What statistics does this word counter show?: Word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentence count and paragraph count. Numbers update instantly as you type. All counting happens in your browser.
Can I count words in a specific section?: Paste only the section you want to measure. The counts always cover the whole text in the box.
Is my text sent to a server?: All counting runs in your browser. Our servers are not involved at any point.

Related tools

Background reading: Complete guide to text tools

Reviewed and tested September 30, 2026.