Free online writing tool
Word Counter
Paste text into this free word counter to see live word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count, estimated reading time, and a rough token estimate.
Free word counter
Paste text to count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and estimated tokens.
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- Sentences
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- Reading time
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- Estimated tokens
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How to use the word counter
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Paste or type your text
Add an essay, article draft, message, caption, prompt, or any text you want to measure.
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Review live counts
The tool updates words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and estimated tokens as you type.
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Copy the stats
Use Copy stats when you need to share the word count, character count, or token estimate with someone else.
Common word counter use cases
A live word counter helps when a writing target, platform limit, or editing workflow depends on clear text length.
Essays and assignments
Check whether a draft is under or over a required word count before submitting it.
Social posts and bios
Measure characters for captions, bios, comments, and short-form posts before publishing.
SEO drafts
Review article length, paragraph structure, and reading time while editing web content.
Prompt writing
Estimate tokens for AI prompts and long instructions before pasting them into another tool.
About this word counter
How this tool defines a word
A word count depends on the rules used to identify words. This counter looks for groups of letters or numbers and allows apostrophes, hyphens, and dots inside those groups. For example, don't and well-known each count as one word. A symbol on its own is not necessarily counted as a word. This is useful for ordinary prose, but it is not a language-aware dictionary or the counting rule used by every submission platform. If you have a strict assignment limit, compare the final draft with the system that receives it.
Why two counters can disagree
Different tools handle web addresses, abbreviations, numbers, and punctuation differently. A small difference does not automatically mean a counter is broken. Start with a short passage and compare a contraction, a hyphenated expression, a number, and a web address separately. Check that both tools received the same text: titles, captions, references, and copied navigation can change a total. Decide whether the rules for your assignment include those elements before editing. The receiving platform's count is the relevant figure when checking an enforced submission limit.
Characters, whitespace, and emoji
The Characters total includes spaces, punctuation, tabs, and line breaks. Without spaces removes all whitespace, including tabs and newlines, rather than only ordinary spaces. The tool uses JavaScript string length, which measures UTF-16 code units. An emoji can therefore contribute more than one unit even when it looks like a single symbol. A family emoji or a symbol with a skin-tone modifier may contain several underlying characters. Use the destination platform's own counter before posting to a service with a strict character limit.
Sentence and paragraph boundaries
Sentence counting uses punctuation boundaries rather than a complete grammatical parser. Abbreviations and decimal numbers can affect the result, so treat the number as a quick inspection aid. Paragraphs are separated by blank lines; a single line break does not necessarily create another counted paragraph. When copying from a PDF, check for unexpected breaks introduced by the source document. Preserve the final document's paragraph spacing when you want comparable statistics. None of these counts evaluates grammar, argument quality, or whether a passage is understandable to its audience.
Reading time is an estimate
Reading time uses a fixed rate of 200 words per minute and rounds up to whole minutes. Text with counted words has a minimum estimate of one minute. This helps compare the approximate length of drafts, but it does not predict how quickly a particular reader will finish. Technical instructions, unfamiliar vocabulary, and material requiring careful thought may take longer. Reading aloud also has a different pace. For a presentation, rehearse the actual script rather than relying on this number, and allow time for pauses and questions.
Token estimates are not billing totals
The token estimate divides the character length by four and rounds up. It does not run a model-specific tokenizer. Languages, code, punctuation, and emoji can produce substantially different relationships between characters and tokens. Use the estimate for a quick comparison between two drafts, not to calculate an AI bill or guarantee that a request fits a model's context window. For those decisions, use the relevant provider's tokenizer or reported usage. A shorter character count can still tokenize differently when the content or language changes.
An editing workflow you can repeat
Paste the complete draft, note its totals, and identify paragraphs that repeat an earlier point. Shorten those sections before removing necessary explanations or examples. Recheck after each meaningful edit. Before submitting, confirm whether headings, references, captions, and quotations belong in the required count. Compare the result with the destination platform, then copy the statistics summary for your notes. Keep the final text separately so the numbers can be reproduced. This workflow makes a length target easier to manage without treating word count as a measure of quality.
Live word and character counts
This word counter updates as you type, so you can keep an eye on words, total characters, and characters without spaces while drafting or editing.
Reading time and token estimates
Estimated reading time uses a simple 200 words-per-minute baseline. Estimated token count is approximate and uses character length as a practical browser-friendly estimate.
Private by design
Counting happens in your browser. TextRepeat.org does not need to upload, store, or send your text to a server for this tool to work.
Word counter FAQ
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