About the Word Counter
This word counter tells you exactly how many words are in a piece of text, along with characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, unique words and the average sentence length. Paste an essay, blog post, cover letter or social caption and the numbers update instantly — nothing is uploaded, everything runs in your browser.
It is built for students working to an essay limit, writers and editors hitting a brief, marketers checking copy length, and anyone preparing a speech. The reading and speaking time estimates use adjustable words-per-minute rates, and the keyword table shows which words you repeat most so you can spot overused terms or check keyword density for SEO.
A word is counted as any run of letters or numbers, so "don't", "well-known", "2026" and "1,250.50" each count as one word, and symbols such as the "$" in "$12" are ignored. Sentences end at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark, and paragraphs are separated by a blank line.
With the default inputs, the words is 57. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the word counter
- 1Paste or type your text into the box.
- 2Read the word count at the top — it updates as you edit.
- 3Adjust the reading or speaking speed to match your audience.
- 4Check the keyword table for overused words.
Formula and method
Words are counted as runs of letters and digits; an apostrophe or hyphen between two letters keeps the word together, so contractions and hyphenated compounds count once, and a comma or decimal point followed by a digit keeps numbers such as 1,000 or 3.5 together. Punctuation, symbols and extra spaces are ignored. Characters count every character including spaces and line breaks; the "no spaces" figure strips all whitespace.
Sentences are split after ".", "!", "?" or "…" followed by a space, and paragraphs by blank lines. Reading and speaking times divide the word count by the chosen words-per-minute rate. Keyword density is how often a word appears divided by the total word count; common function words can be hidden so the list shows meaningful terms.
- WPM
- Words per minute (reading or speaking speed)
- Density
- Share of all words taken by one word, in percent
Worked examples
Short personal-finance blog intro
The sample has two paragraphs and five sentences containing 57 words ("$12" counts as the word "12"), 50 of them unique. It is 319 characters long including spaces and line breaks, or 262 without them. At 238 words per minute it takes about 14 seconds to read.
Contractions and hyphenated words
"It's", "well-known" and "don't" each count as one word, giving 12 words across two sentences. "don't" appears twice, so there are 11 unique words.
1,000-word essay reading and speaking time
A 1,000-word essay read at 238 words per minute takes 1000 ÷ 238 ≈ 4.2 minutes. Delivered as a speech at 150 words per minute it runs 1000 ÷ 150 ≈ 6.7 minutes, shown rounded to 7 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages is 1,000 words?+
About 2 pages single-spaced or 4 pages double-spaced in a 12-point font with 1-inch margins. The exact figure depends on font, spacing and paragraph breaks — use the words-to-pages calculator for your settings.
Does the word counter count numbers and hyphenated words?+
Yes. A number such as 2026 counts as one word, and hyphenated compounds such as "well-known" or contractions such as "don't" also count as one word, which is how Microsoft Word and Google Docs count them too. Stand-alone symbols such as & or — are not counted as words.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?+
At an average silent reading speed of about 238 words per minute, 1,000 words take a little over 4 minutes to read. Read aloud at 130–160 words per minute it takes roughly 6–8 minutes.
What is keyword density?+
Keyword density is the number of times a word appears divided by the total number of words, expressed as a percentage. Search engines no longer reward a target density, so use it to spot repetition rather than to stuff keywords.
Is my text stored or uploaded?+
No. The counts are calculated in your browser as you type, and the text is never sent to a server, so it is safe to paste drafts, assignments or confidential documents.