About Text Counter
Almost every piece of writing is produced against a limit. Essays have minimums, journals have maximums, meta descriptions get truncated, SMS messages split at a specific length, and a client brief that says 800 words means 800 words. Knowing where you stand while you write beats discovering it afterwards.
This counter reports every statistic in one view and updates on each keystroke — words, characters with and without spaces, letters, digits, sentences, paragraphs, lines, and estimated reading and speaking time. Pick a platform preset and a progress bar shows how much of the budget you have used and how much is left.
Counting is done properly rather than approximately. Characters are counted as grapheme clusters, so an emoji counts as one the way a reader would count it, not as the two or more code units it occupies internally. Sentences are detected from terminal punctuation with common abbreviations excluded, so "Dr. Smith" is one sentence rather than two.
How to count words and characters
Add your text
Type directly into the box or paste from anywhere. Nothing is uploaded.
Read the statistics
Every count updates live as you type — words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time.
Check against a limit
Choose a platform preset to see a progress bar and the exact number of characters remaining.
Review word frequency
Open the frequency list to spot words you have leaned on too heavily, with filler words optionally excluded.
Limits worth knowing
- Meta title — around 60 characters before search results truncate it.
- Meta description — around 155 characters.
- SMS — 160 characters in GSM-7; a single emoji or accented letter drops it to 70.
- Image alt text — under about 125 characters for screen readers.
- Cover letter — 250 to 400 words; longer is rarely read in full.
- Blog post aiming to rank — typically 1,000 to 2,000 words.
How the time estimates work
Reading time assumes 225 words per minute, the widely used average for adults reading non-technical prose on a screen. Speaking time assumes 130 words per minute, a measured and presentable pace.
Treat both as guides. Dense technical writing is read more slowly, and a talk with pauses and questions always runs longer than the raw figure suggests.