Word & Character Counter
Paste any text. Get word count, character count, reading time, and keyword density instantly. Free, no signup.
Paste or type your text
0 words
0 chars
0 sentences
0
Words
0
Characters
0
No spaces
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0
Lines
0s
Read
200 WPM avg
0s
Speak
130 WPM avg
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Type
35 WPM
Typing speed
35 WPM
0
Unique words
—
Avg word length
Exam match
Paste text to check
Top keywords
Keywords appear here as you type.
How it works
Paste text. See everything.
Counts update on every keystroke. No button, no delay.
01
Paste or type
Drop any text into the box. The counter starts on the first character — essay, email, legal draft, exam passage, anything.
02
Six counts at once
Words, characters with spaces, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and lines. All six update live.
03
Reading, speaking, typing time
Reading time at 200 WPM. Speaking time at 130 WPM. Drag the slider to your actual typing speed for a typing time estimate.
04
Keyword density
Top 8 content words ranked by frequency, with density percentage. Useful for SEO audits and exam passage vocabulary checks.
Definitions
What each number means
Three metrics trip up most users. Here is what the counter is actually measuring.
W
Word Count
Continuous character sequences separated by whitespace. One word = one token, regardless of length. Essays, legal docs, job descriptions, and academic submissions all use this as the primary length unit.
Non-empty tokens after splitting on whitespace
e.g. "Hello world" = 2 words
C
Character Count
"With spaces" counts every character in your text, including spaces, tabs, and newlines. "Without spaces" strips all whitespace. Twitter/X uses the with-spaces count. SSC exam passage length uses without-spaces.
text.length (with) / text.replace(\s, "").length (without)
e.g. "Hi there" = 8 with, 7 without
RT
Reading Time
Estimated silent reading time at 200 WPM, the adult average for plain English prose. Legal and technical text reads at 100–150 WPM; simple prose reads faster. Treat this as a floor, not a fixed value.
Words ÷ 200 WPM
e.g. 1,000 words = 5 minutes
200 WPM
Avg reading speed
130 WPM
Avg speaking speed
280 chars
Tweet limit
~2,000 chars
SSC CHSL passage
Character count for typing exam passages
SSC CHSL and Railway NTPC specify passage length in characters without spaces, not word count. A 10-minute test at 26.7 WPM covers 1,800–2,500 characters. Paste your practice passage here and check the "no spaces" number against that range. A passage 800 characters short inflates your speed estimate; one that runs long tires you before the test window closes.
Who uses this
Four different jobs. One counter.
Word count and character count serve different purposes depending on what you are writing and where it goes.
Writers tracking submission limits
Academic assignments, grant proposals, and editorial submissions specify word count ranges. Paste your draft and see where you land — over, under, or exactly on target.
Exam aspirants checking passage length
SSC, Railway, and Banking typing tests use fixed-length passages measured in characters without spaces. If your practice text runs 800 characters short, your speed reading is inflated.
Content writers hitting platform character caps
Meta titles cut off at 60 characters. Meta descriptions at 160. Copy your draft here and check the exact character count before publishing — the platform will truncate without warning.
Speakers fitting scripts to a slot
Paste your speech or podcast script. The speaking time estimate at 130 WPM tells you whether your 1,200-word script fits a 10-minute slot before you find out the hard way.
200
WPM — avg silent reading speed
130
WPM — avg speaking speed
280
chars — Twitter/X limit
160
chars — SEO meta description limit
Common mistakes
Wrong count. Wrong call.
Character count with spaces and without spaces are different numbers. Using the wrong one costs you the submission, the post, or the exam score.
01
Checking "without spaces" for Twitter and LinkedIn limits
Twitter, LinkedIn, and most CMS tools count every character including spaces. "Without spaces" reads 275 — looks safe under 280. With spaces that same draft is 310 characters, over the cap.
Fix:
Use "with spaces" for any character-limited platform. Use "without spaces" only for exam passage length checks.
02
Trusting the 200 WPM reading time for complex text
200 WPM is the average for plain English prose. Legal documents and technical manuals read at 100–150 WPM. If you plan a 30-minute presentation around a reading-time estimate, you may run 10 minutes over.
Fix:
For legal, medical, or technical content, multiply the estimated reading time by 1.5 before building your schedule around it.
03
Submitting based on word count alone
Academic submissions specify both a word count range and a page count. 3,000 words in 14-point font at 1.5 line spacing takes more pages than in 12-point single-spaced. Your word count passes; your page count fails.
Fix:
Read the full submission guidelines. Word count and page count are separate requirements that can conflict.
04
Using your writing app's word counter for final submission
Word, Google Docs, and Notion count differently. Footnotes, headers, text boxes, and captions may be included or excluded. The count you see in the app may not match the count your reviewer sees.
Fix:
Copy only the body text into this counter. Plain-text input gives you the cleanest count.
Common questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
Word count, character count, reading time, and exam passage analysis — answered.
The counter splits your text on whitespace and counts each non-empty group. "Hello world" = 2 words. Hyphenated words like "well-known" count as one word. Numbers count as words. Blank lines between paragraphs are ignored.
Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and most CMS platforms count every character including spaces — use the "with spaces" number for those. SSC and Railway exam passage lengths are measured in characters without spaces — use the "no spaces" number for those. Both are shown side by side.
Reading time divides your word count by 200 WPM, the adult average for plain English prose. Speaking time uses 130 WPM. Both are estimates — technical and legal text reads at 100–150 WPM, simple prose faster.
Typing time = word count ÷ your WPM (set via the slider, default 35 WPM). For exam prep, set the slider to your target speed and check whether the passage fits your test window.
The counter looks for terminal punctuation: full stops, exclamation marks, and question marks. Abbreviations and decimal numbers can cause slight overcounting in short texts.
A paragraph is a block of text separated from the next by a blank line. Single line breaks inside a block do not split it. If your text has no blank lines, the entire text counts as one paragraph.
The counter lowercases all words, strips punctuation, and counts distinct values. "Run," "run," and "running" are three separate unique words — no stemming or lemmatizing. Stop words are included in the unique word count.
Keyword density = (word frequency ÷ total word count) × 100. The counter strips common stop words first, then ranks the remaining words by frequency. A keyword at 2–3% density is well-represented; above 5% risks keyword stuffing penalties in SEO.
No. All analysis runs in your browser. No text reaches any server. Closing or refreshing the page clears it. Nothing is logged.
SSC CHSL (10 minutes at 26.7 WPM) passages run 1,800–2,500 characters without spaces. SSC CGL DEO (10 minutes at 50 WPM) uses 3,000–4,200 characters. Paste your practice passage and check the "no spaces" count against those ranges.