Word Counter — Live Statistics & Readability
Evaluate word frequency, sentence counts, readability indices, and character goals in real-time.
Total Words
0
Characters
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0
Reading Time
0 min
Speaking Time
0 min
Keyword Frequency Analysis
| Keyword | Occurrences | Density Index |
|---|---|---|
| Awaiting text input to compile frequency metrics... | ||
Frequently Asked Questions
How is reading and speaking time calculated?
How is the Readability Score determined?
Will my typed or pasted text be secure?
What counts as a word or sentence in the calculations?
Word Count Limits That Actually Matter
Common word & character limits
Most people open a word count checker because something has a limit: an exam, a form, a platform, or an editor's brief. The table below collects the limits we get asked about most, so you can paste your text above and check against the right target immediately.
| Where | Limit | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| IELTS Writing Task 1 | 150 words minimum | Under-length answers lose band points |
| IELTS Writing Task 2 | 250 words minimum | Aim for 260–290 to stay safe |
| CSS / PMS précis | ⅓ of the passage | Count the passage first, divide by 3 |
| Upwork proposal | 100–200 words | Short, specific proposals get more replies |
| Fiverr gig description | 1,200 characters max | Front-load keywords in the first 150 |
| Google meta description | 150–160 characters | Longer text gets truncated in results |
| Google title tag | ≤ 60 characters | Measured in pixels, ~60 chars is safe |
| X / Twitter post | 280 characters | Links count as 23 characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters | Only ~125 show before “more” |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters | First 200 characters decide the click |
| Common App essay | 650 words max | Hard cutoff — the form stops accepting input |
| WhatsApp status | 700 characters | Keep it under 139 to avoid truncation |
How this word counter counts
A word is any run of letters or digits separated by whitespace — so a URL, a hyphenated term like “mother-in-law”, or a number each count as one word. Characters are counted both with and without spaces, because forms differ on which they enforce: Fiverr's gig description limit includes spaces, while some university portals count only visible characters. Sentences are detected from terminal punctuation, and reading time uses 250 words per minute (the adult average for English prose), with speaking time at 130 wpm — the pace of a comfortable presentation.
If you compare results across tools, expect tiny differences. Microsoft Word, Google Docs and this counter agree on normal prose, but each tokenizes edge cases like em-dashes, slashes and decimals slightly differently. For exams and forms, what matters is the counter the gatekeeper uses — when a limit is strict (like the Common App's 650 words), leave yourself a margin of a few words.
Checking word count for essays, proposals and SEO
Students use this tool to keep IELTS answers above the 150/250-word floors and CSS/PMS précis at exactly one-third of the passage. Freelancers check Upwork proposals and Fiverr gig copy, where shorter, specific writing consistently outperforms padded text. Writers and SEO editors use the character counts to fit Google's title and meta-description windows, and the keyword density table (below the counter) to spot accidental over-repetition before publishing. Everything runs locally in your browser — paste a confidential draft, an unpublished article or an exam answer and it never leaves your device.
Need more than a count? Run your draft through the grammar checker, scan it with the plagiarism & duplicate checker, or fix capitalization with the case converter.