How words are counted
A word is a run of letters or digits between spaces or punctuation. Paste your text and the word count, sentence count and reading time appear at once.
The counter relies on your browser's built-in language rules (Intl.Segmenter, which follows the Unicode text segmentation standard), with these conventions:
- Hyphenated words count as one: mother-in-law is one word, as in Microsoft Word.
- Contractions and elisions count as one: don't, it's.
- Numbers count as words: 3.5 million is two words.
- Punctuation, symbols and emoji are not words. A dash between two spaces does not add a word.
- Chinese, Japanese and Thai, written without spaces, are split with the dictionary built into the browser. The result is a real word count, not a character count, but it can differ from other tools.
Sentences and paragraphs
Sentences end with a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark, following the language's rules. Abbreviations can occasionally cut a sentence in two, so treat the sentence count as a close estimate. Paragraphs are the non-empty lines of your text, the way word processors count them.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time is the word count divided by 238 words per minute. That figure comes from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review of 190 studies on reading speed (Journal of Memory and Language), for silent reading of non-fiction in English; fiction is read a little faster, at about 260. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a comfortable pace for a talk or a video voice-over.
Most frequent words
The "Most frequent" panel lists the words you repeat most, with their share of the total (keyword density). Common words such as the, and or of are left out so the list shows the words that carry meaning. Use it to spot repetitions before you send a text, or to check that a page about one topic actually mentions it.
Typical lengths
An average English word is a little under 5 letters long, so 1,000 words is usually around 5,500 to 6,000 characters with spaces. Your own ratio is visible above: compare the words and characters figures. For character caps, switch to the character counter.
Frequently asked questions
Does the word counter count numbers?
Yes. A number such as 2024 or 3.14 counts as one word. Punctuation and emoji are not counted.
Are hyphenated words one word or two?
One. Words joined by a hyphen without spaces, such as long-term, count as a single word, which matches Microsoft Word.
How is reading time calculated?
The word count is divided by 238 words per minute, the average silent reading rate for non-fiction reported in a 2019 meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert. Actual speed depends on the reader and the text.
Can I count words in Chinese or Japanese?
Yes. These languages are split into words with the dictionary built into your browser. For a count of characters, look at the Characters figure instead, which is what most limits for these languages use.
Why does Google Docs give a different number?
Each editor applies its own rules to dashes, URLs, numbers with separators and hyphenated words. Differences are usually a few words on a long text.