Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and reading time. Runs in your browser.
About this word counter
This word counter shows how many words, characters, sentences and paragraphs your text has, and updates every number as you type. It also estimates how long the text takes to read silently and to say out loud, and lists the words you use most.
Students use it to stay inside essay limits, writers and bloggers to hit a target length, SEO writers to fit titles and meta descriptions, and social media managers to check a post against the platform limit before publishing. Pick a limit such as an X post or a meta description and a progress bar shows how much room is left.
Characters are counted the way people see them, so an emoji with a skin tone or a letter with an accent counts as one. Chinese, Japanese and Thai text, which has no spaces between words, is split into real words. Your text stays in your browser and is never saved or sent.
Features
Live counts as you type
Words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and average words per sentence update instantly, even on long documents.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time uses an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute. Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, a typical pace for a talk or presentation.
Accurate character counts
Characters are counted as graphemes, the units you see on screen. 👍🏽, 🇯🇵 and é each count as one, where many counters report two or more.
Words in any language
Words are separated by spaces, as in Word and Google Docs. Text in Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Lao, Khmer and Burmese is split into words with your browser's built-in language rules.
Limit checker with progress bar
Check against an X post (280), meta description (160), SEO title (60), YouTube title (100), Instagram caption (2,200), LinkedIn post (3,000), or your own character limit or word goal.
X (Twitter) weighted count
The X limit follows X's own counting rules: every link counts as 23 characters, and emoji and CJK characters count as 2.
Top keywords with density
See your 10 most used words with how often each appears and its share of the total. Common words such as "the" and "and" are left out unless you include them.
How to use the word counter
- 1Type or paste your text.
- 2Counts update instantly as you type.
- 3Pick a limit, such as an X post or meta description, to see how much room is left.
When to use it
Essays and assignments
Keep a school or college essay within its word limit and track progress toward a word goal.
Social media posts
Check an X post, an Instagram caption or a LinkedIn update against the platform limit before you publish.
SEO titles and descriptions
Fit a title tag in about 60 characters and a meta description in about 160 so search results do not cut them off.
Speeches and videos
Use speaking time to plan a talk, a podcast segment or a video script. A 5-minute slot holds about 650 spoken words.
Spotting repeated words
Use the keyword list to find words you lean on too often, or to check that a target keyword appears naturally in an article.
How words and characters are counted
A word is any group of characters between spaces that contains at least one letter or digit. So "don't", "e-mail" and "3.14" are one word each, and a lone dash or emoji is not a word. Em dashes and en dashes also separate words, so "word—word" counts as two. This matches how most word processors count.
Languages written without spaces need a different approach. For Chinese, Japanese, Thai and similar scripts, the tool uses the word segmentation built into your browser, which splits 我喜欢学习中文 ("I like studying Chinese") into about four words instead of one. Browsers without this feature count each Chinese or Japanese character as a word, as Microsoft Word does.
Characters are counted as graphemes. An emoji with a skin tone is made of two code points, and a family emoji can be seven, but you see one symbol, so it counts as one. Characters without spaces leave out spaces, tabs and line breaks.
How sentences, paragraphs and reading time are worked out
Sentences are found with your browser's sentence rules, which handle periods, question marks, exclamation marks and their equivalents in other languages. Titles such as "Dr." and "Mr." do not end a sentence, and decimal numbers like 3.5 do not split one.
Every non-empty line counts as a paragraph. Text copied from documents and web pages usually puts each paragraph on its own line, so this matches what you see.
Reading time divides the word count by 238, the average silent reading speed for adults reading nonfiction in English. Speaking time divides by 130, a comfortable pace for presentations. Your own pace may differ, so treat both as estimates.
Common length limits
These are the limits built into the checker. Platforms change them from time to time, so check the current rules for anything critical.
- X (Twitter) post: 280, with links counted as 23 and emoji or CJK characters as 2.
- Meta description: about 150 to 160 characters before Google usually cuts it off. Google truncates by pixel width, so wide letters fit fewer characters.
- SEO title tag: about 60 characters.
- YouTube video title: 100 characters.
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters.
- LinkedIn post: 3,000 characters.
Why use Mavros
| Mavros | Typical upload sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your text goes | Stays in your browser, never saved | Often sent to a server or autosaved |
| Emoji and accented letters | Count as one character each | Often count as two or more |
| Chinese, Japanese and Thai | Split into real words | Often one word per sentence |
| X post limit | Uses X's weighting for links, emoji and CJK | Plain character count |
| Ads and pop-ups | None in the tool | Common |
Tips
- Paste your final draft, not an outline. Headings and bullet points count as words too.
- For speeches, use speaking time rather than reading time. People speak about half as fast as they read.
- Keep keyword density natural. If one keyword is far above the rest, rewrite a few sentences with synonyms.
- When a meta description shows a few characters left, stop there. Google cuts snippets by width, not by count.
- Use Copy text after editing here to move your text back to your document.
Questions
How do I count words in my text?
Paste or type your text into the box. The word count and every other number update instantly as you type.
How is reading time calculated?
It uses an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute and a speaking speed of 130 words per minute.
Does it count characters correctly for emoji and other languages?
Yes. Characters are counted as user-perceived characters (graphemes), so an emoji or a combined letter counts as one.
Are spaces counted as characters?
Yes, in the main character count. The "characters without spaces" count leaves out spaces, tabs and line breaks.
How many words is a 5-minute speech?
About 650 words at 130 words per minute. Fast speakers reach 750 or more, and slower, deliberate speakers about 500.
How many words fit on one page?
About 500 words single-spaced or 250 words double-spaced, using a 12-point font and standard margins.
What is the character limit for a meta description?
Google usually shows about 150 to 160 characters. It truncates by pixel width, so aim for 150 to 160 and put the important words first.
Why does my count differ from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Tools treat some cases differently, such as words joined by slashes, hyphens or dashes, and text in languages without spaces. Differences are usually a few words in a long document.
Is my text saved or uploaded?
No. Counting happens in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere, and the text is gone when you close the page.