word counter

How to use the word counter

  1. Paste or type your text in the main input area. Statistics update live as you type.
  2. Read the headline counters: words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, and lines.
  3. Below that, see reading and speaking time estimates based on average rates (200-300 WPM read, 130 WPM speak).
  4. Check keyword density to spot SEO problems — top 10 most-frequent words and 2-grams.
  5. Use the readability score (Flesch reading ease) to confirm your copy matches its audience.

When to use it

Use it whenever you write to a length spec — a 300-word LinkedIn post, an 800-word blog post, a 1500-word essay, a tweet under 280 characters. Estimating by eye is unreliable. The reading-time figure is also useful as a 'time to read' annotation on blog posts. Alternative: most editors show a word count somewhere; this tool wins for keyword density and readability scoring.

Frequently asked questions

How does the word counter define a 'word'?
A sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace or line breaks. Hyphenated compounds (`well-known`) count as one. Email addresses and URLs count as one each, since they're typed as a unit.
Why is the character count higher than I expected?
Spaces, tabs, and newlines count as characters by default. Toggle 'Without spaces' for the lower number. Some platforms (Twitter) count emoji as multiple characters because they're multi-byte in UTF-16.
What's a good reading time for a blog post?
Most successful blog posts target 7-10 minutes (around 1500-2000 words). Anything under 3 minutes is too thin for SEO; anything over 15 minutes loses most readers. The counter shows live estimates so you can write to a target.
How does keyword density help SEO?
If your target keyword appears under 0.5% of your text, search engines may not associate the page with it. Over 3% triggers keyword-stuffing penalties. The 1-2% range is healthy. The counter shows the top 10 keywords so you can adjust.
What's the Flesch reading ease score?
A 0-100 score where higher is easier. 60-70 = standard (8th-9th grade reading level), 70-80 = fairly easy. Aim for 60-70 for general-audience writing, 70+ for landing pages, 50+ for technical documentation.
Does the word counter work in other languages?
Word and character counts work for any language. Reading-time estimates assume English reading speeds — adjust mentally for languages with different word lengths. Sentence detection assumes Latin-script punctuation.

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Last updated: 2026-04-27