Word & Character Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and reading time
Word limits that actually matter
Most writing constraints are expressed in words or characters, and the two rarely track each other. A meta description should sit near 155 characters, an X/Twitter post allows 280, and an SMS message splits after 160. Academic essays and job applications are usually specified in words instead.
How each figure is counted
Words are runs of non-whitespace characters, so hyphenated compounds count once. Characters includes spaces and line breaks; the “no spaces” figure strips all whitespace. Sentences are split on . ! ?, which means abbreviations like “e.g.” can inflate the count slightly.
Reading time assumes 200 words per minute, a common average for adult silent reading. Technical material runs slower; light prose faster.