Word Counter

How does the counter decide what a word is?

It trims the text, then splits on every run of whitespace (spaces, tabs, line breaks), and the number of pieces is the word count. Nothing else is considered, so "well-known", "don't", "3.14" and "1,000" are each one word, while a dash with spaces around it, such as " — ", is a word of its own. Empty or whitespace-only input gives 0.

Why are Chinese and Japanese counted so low?

Those languages are written without spaces between words, so a whole sentence is one run of characters and counts as one word. The text "日本語のテキスト です" has a single space and returns 2 words. Use the Characters figure for such text, which counts every character.

How are emoji, accents and line breaks counted in Characters?

Characters are counted as Unicode code points, so an emoji such as 😀 is 1 character and "é" is 1. A few emoji are built from several code points (flags, skin tones, family groups) and count as more than one. A Windows-style line break (CRLF) is treated as a single character, the same as a Unix one, and every line break counts in Characters but not in Characters (no spaces).

What counts as a sentence?

A run of . ! or ? followed by whitespace or the end of the text. A run such as "..." or "?!" counts once, and a dot inside 3.5 or e.g. does not end anything. Text that ends without any mark still counts as one sentence. Abbreviations such as "Mr." or "Dr." do count as endings, so the figure can run high in formal writing, and a line break without punctuation does not end a sentence.

What is a paragraph here?

A block of text separated from the next by at least one blank line. A line containing only spaces or tabs counts as blank. A single line break does not start a new paragraph, so a poem or a list with one item per line is one paragraph unless you leave empty lines between items.

Which reading and speaking speeds does the tool use?

These are figures built into this tool: 200 words per minute for silent reading and 130 words per minute for speaking aloud. Each is divided into the word count and rounded up, with a minimum of 1 minute for any text, so 201 words shows ~2 min to read. Empty text shows 0 min. Slow or technical material, or a fast speaker, will not match.

Why does Word or Google Docs show a different number?

Other programs make different rules for dashes, slashes and symbols standing alone, and some count East Asian text per character. Differences of a few words are usual on long documents. If an employer, publisher or exam board sets a limit, count with their tool or follow their stated rule.

Does the character count match a platform's limit?

Often, but not always. This tool counts code points. X weights some characters, such as most CJK text, as two, and applies a fixed length to every link, so its own composer is the final check. Instagram and LinkedIn limits are close to a plain character count, though both can change.