Processed entirely on your device — nothing is uploaded
How to use the word counter
- 1Type or paste your text into the box above.
- 2Watch the counts update live as you write.
- 3Check the reading and speaking time estimates for length-limited work.
- 4Nothing is saved — closing the tab discards the text.
Character limits that matter
Different platforms count differently, and the differences catch people out. A page title in Google search results is truncated at roughly 580 pixels rather than a character count, which works out around 55–60 characters for typical text — wide capitals eat the budget faster. Meta descriptions get about 155–160.
Social platforms mostly count characters directly, but not always the way you would expect. Emoji frequently count as two, because many sit outside the Basic Multilingual Plane and occupy two UTF-16 code units. This tool counts by code point, so an emoji counts as one — which is what a human means, but not always what a platform's limit measures.
SMS is the strictest case: 160 characters for plain GSM alphabet text, dropping to 70 if the message contains a single non-GSM character such as an emoji or a curly quote. That is why one stray character can turn a single message into three.
How the reading time is calculated
The reading estimate uses 238 words per minute, which comes from a 2019 meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert covering nearly two hundred studies of adult silent reading. It is a considerably better-grounded number than the 200 or 250 most tools use without citation.
Real reading speed varies enormously with material and purpose. Technical documentation slows most readers to well under 200 words per minute; light narrative prose runs faster. Skimming for a specific fact is several times quicker than reading for comprehension, and reading on a phone is measurably slower than on paper.
Treat the figure as a planning aid rather than a measurement. It is genuinely useful for deciding whether an article is a five-minute read or a twenty-minute one, and not useful for predicting how long any particular person will take.
Speaking time and why it is so much slower
The speaking estimate uses 130 words per minute, which sits in the normal range for clear presentation delivery. Conversational speech runs faster, around 150 to 160, but a presentation delivered at conversational pace is usually too fast for an audience to follow comfortably.
This is the number to use when writing a talk. A twenty-minute conference slot is roughly 2,600 words — which is far less text than most people assume, and is why over-running is the default failure mode for first-time speakers.
Audiobook narration is slower still, typically 150 words per minute but with pauses that bring the effective rate down. Podcast conversation runs faster and more variably. For anything timed, read it aloud with a stopwatch rather than trusting any estimate.
Sentence and paragraph counts as a writing signal
The average words per sentence is a decent proxy for readability. Under 15 reads as brisk and clear; 15–20 is comfortable for general audiences; consistently over 25 tends to feel dense regardless of how well constructed the sentences are.
Variation matters more than the average, though. A page of uniformly 18-word sentences reads monotonously. Mixing short sentences with longer ones creates rhythm — which is a thing you can see in the counts only indirectly, by watching the average shift as you edit.
Paragraph count relative to word count tells you about density on screen. Web readers scan, and a 900-word article in four paragraphs is much harder going than the same text in twelve.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?
At 238 words per minute, from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of adult silent reading. Real speed varies with material and purpose.
How long should a 20-minute talk be?
Roughly 2,600 words at a clear presentation pace of 130 words per minute. Most first drafts are considerably too long.
Do emoji count as one character?
Here, yes — counting is by code point. Some platforms count UTF-16 units, where many emoji count as two.
What is a good average sentence length?
15–20 words reads comfortably for general audiences. Variation between short and long matters more than the average itself.
Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
No. It exists only in the page while the tab is open and is discarded when you close it.
Does it count words the same way as Word?
Very nearly. Both split on whitespace; edge cases like hyphenated compounds and numbers with separators can differ by one or two.