Scrawlspace › Text Tools

Word Counter & Character Counter

Paste or type your text to count words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines, and to see how long it takes to read aloud or silently. It counts Hindi, Tamil and other Indian scripts correctly, lists your most used words, and checks the text against a character limit. Your text stays in your browser.

How to use Word Counter

1. Type or paste your text into the box, or drop a .txt file on the page. Click Sample to try it first.
2. Read the counts on the right: words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, lines, reading time and speaking time. They update as you type.
3. Under Character limit, pick 280 (X post), 160 (SMS) or 3,000 (LinkedIn), or type your own limit. The bar turns red and says how many characters you are over.
4. Check Top keywords for the words you use most, with how often each appears and its share of all words.

Frequently asked questions

How are words counted?

Words are found with the browser's built-in language rules (Intl.Segmenter), the same kind used to move the cursor word by word. Punctuation and spaces aren't words, "don't" is one word, numbers such as 3.14 are one word, and a hyphenated word such as well-known counts once, as in most word processors. Older browsers without those rules fall back to a pattern that still counts letters and numbers in any script.

Does it count Hindi words and characters correctly?

Yes. नमस्ते counts as one word. For characters it counts what a reader sees as one character, so a vowel sign such as े stays with its letter instead of being counted on its own. Newer browsers also keep a joined consonant such as स्ते together, so नमस्ते is 3 characters in a current browser and 4 in an older one. Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and other scripts work the same way, and the Hindi danda (।) ends a sentence.

What is the difference between characters with and without spaces?

Characters counts everything, including spaces and line breaks. Without spaces leaves out every space, tab and line break. Forms and social sites almost always count with spaces; some assignments and translation quotes use the count without.

How is reading time worked out?

Reading time is the word count divided by 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for adults reading non-fiction found by a 2019 review of 190 studies. Speaking time uses 140 words per minute, a steady pace for a talk or presentation. Both are estimates: technical text reads slower.

Will my count match X, SMS or LinkedIn exactly?

Usually, but not always. The limit check counts characters as you see them. X counts each emoji and each Chinese, Japanese or Korean character as two and every link as 23. A plain SMS holds 160 characters, but one with Hindi letters, emoji or curly quotes is sent as Unicode and holds 70, which the tool warns about when you choose 160. LinkedIn posts allow 3,000 characters.

Which words are left out of Top keywords?

Very common English words such as the, and, of and is, a few very common Hindi words such as है, का and में, numbers, and single letters. Capitals are ignored, so The and the count together. The share is that word's count as a percentage of all words.

Is my text saved or uploaded?

It isn't uploaded: all counting happens in your browser. The text is saved in this browser's local storage so it's still there if you reload, unless it's very long. Click the bin icon to clear it.

Common character limits

Limits as the platforms state them. Check the form or site you are filling in, since limits change and some count differently.

Word counts for essays and applications

Statements of purpose, scholarship essays and answer-writing practice often set a word limit. Paste the final draft here, since editors and word processors can count hyphenated words, numbers and URLs differently. To compare two drafts line by line, use the diff checker; to fix a heading's capitals, use the case converter.