Free browser utility
Word & Reading Time Counter
Count words, Unicode characters, paragraphs and lines, with an estimated reading time at the speed you choose.
Use plain text. HTML tags would be counted as text, so remove markup first. Characters are Unicode code points; a visible emoji or combined letter can contain several code points. Maximum 100,000 characters.
Count the text you intend to publish
Paste plain text from your draft, then select a reading speed and run the counter. The report distinguishes the full character count from the count without whitespace. Paragraphs are separated by blank lines, while the line count follows actual line breaks in the input rather than the way text wraps on your screen.
Word counting uses the browser’s language-aware segmentation when available, with a simpler letter-and-number fallback in older browsers. Different editors can use different word rules, especially for hyphens, apostrophes and languages without spaces between every word. Compare the same input if you need to reconcile two counters.
Make the reading estimate useful
The estimate divides the word count by the speed you choose and rounds up to a whole second. A technical explanation, a table or a page that needs hands-on work can take longer to understand than a plain passage of the same length. Change the speed to explore a different assumption rather than treating the default as a measure of every reader.
Keep quantity separate from quality
A count helps manage a brief, compare the length of two drafts or identify how much text a page contains. It does not establish that the page answers a question, has enough original value or will rank. Review the actual information, examples and organization alongside the numbers.
Export the count report if you want to record the revision. The export contains the measures and results, not the complete text of your draft.
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