Word Counter

How to use it

1. Type or paste your text.
2. Read the counts below the box.
3. Edit until you hit your limit.

Good to know

Reading time assumes 230 words per minute, about average for an adult reading silently.

Hyphenated words and words with apostrophes count as one, the same way most word processors treat them.

How words are counted here

• A word is a run of letters or digits. "Don't" and "well-known" each count as one.
• A dash with no spaces separates words, so "yes—no" counts as two.
• Website addresses split at their punctuation, so example.com counts as two. Word processors that split only on spaces will show a slightly different total.
• Chinese and Japanese are written without spaces, so a whole phrase can count as one word. Use the character count for those languages.
• Sentences are detected from end punctuation, so abbreviations like "e.g." can add a few extra.
• Each non-empty line counts as a paragraph.

Common length limits

Limits like these change from time to time, so check the current rules when a deadline depends on them.

Turning word counts into time

Reading time here uses 230 words per minute. Speaking is much slower, at about 130 to 150 words per minute for most presenters. A five-minute talk is therefore roughly 700 words, even though it would take about three minutes to read silently.

Questions