How is reading time calculated?
We use an average reading speed of 200 words per minute. A 1,000-word article would take approximately 5 minutes to read.
What is the difference between word count and character count?
Word count is the number of words separated by spaces; character count is the total number of letters, digits, punctuation marks, and spaces. A 100-word paragraph is typically 500-600 characters including spaces. Platforms like Twitter limit characters, while essays and articles usually specify words — this counter shows both at once.
Why Use a Word Counter?
Knowing your exact word and character count matters for essays with strict limits, blog posts optimized for SEO, social media platforms with hard caps, and meta descriptions that get truncated in search results. The counter also reports sentences, paragraphs, and reading time.
What's the ideal word count for SEO?
Google's guidelines suggest comprehensive content. Studies show top-ranking pages average 1,500-2,500 words, but quality matters more than length.
Are my texts stored?
No. All processing happens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or saved on any server.
How does the word counter handle hyphenated words?
Hyphenated words like "well-known" are counted as a single word, which is the standard convention used by most word processors. The tool splits on whitespace, so any sequence of non-space characters between spaces counts as one word.
Is the reading time estimate accurate?
The estimate uses the industry-standard average of 200 to 250 words per minute for English text. Your actual reading speed may vary based on content complexity, familiarity with the topic, and personal reading habits. Use it as a guideline rather than an exact measure.
Does the counter work with languages other than English?
Yes. The word counter works with any text. For languages that do not use spaces between words (such as Chinese or Japanese), the character count will be more meaningful than the word count. Sentence detection adapts to common punctuation marks.
How many words are on a page?
A standard double-spaced page with 12-point font and 1-inch margins holds roughly 250-300 words, while a single-spaced page holds about 500-600 words. The exact number depends on font size, line spacing, and margins — paste the text into this word counter to see the real count.
Does the word counter include spaces?
The Characters panel counts every character including spaces, while the Characters (no spaces) panel excludes all whitespace. Word count never includes spaces — words are counted as sequences of characters separated by whitespace.