# Count words in text

> Paste text and see a live count of words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, plus reading and speaking time estimates.

Open the tool: https://yourbrowsercandoit.com/word-counter

Count words, characters, lines, and reading time. Free, no signup. Runs entirely in your browser; files are never uploaded.

## How it works

Type or paste into the box and the stats update on every keystroke. Eight live measurements: words (split by whitespace), characters (total), characters excluding whitespace, lines, sentences (counted by period, question, and exclamation terminators), paragraphs (separated by blank lines), reading time (at 200 wpm, the average for adults), and speaking time (at 130 wpm, the average for clear delivery). Useful for blog post length checks, essay word-count requirements, social-media post limits, and rough talk-length estimation for slides or speeches. Counts handle UTF-8 and emoji correctly. There's no upper limit on input size, the count is computed incrementally on each keystroke.

## How to use it

1. **Paste or type your text.** The stats update on every keystroke.
2. **Read the counts.** Words, characters with and without spaces, lines, sentences, and paragraphs, all live.
3. **Check the time estimates.** Reading time at 200 wpm and speaking time at 130 wpm help size a post or a talk.

## Frequently asked questions

### How are words counted?

By splitting on whitespace runs and counting non-empty results. "hello world" counts as 2 words. Hyphenated compounds count as one.

### What's the reading time based on?

200 words per minute, the average silent-reading speed for an adult on familiar material. Technical text reads slower; light fiction reads faster.

### Is the text uploaded?

No. The count runs locally in your browser.

### Does this count characters with or without spaces?

Both. The "Characters" stat is total including whitespace; "No spaces" excludes whitespace.

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