How to use the word counter
Type straight into the box or paste from Word, Google Docs or an email. The headline line above the text shows your word and character totals; the panel beside it adds sentences, paragraphs, reading time, speaking time and a reading-level score, and the details list covers characters without spaces, unique words, average word and sentence length, the longest word and sentence, a page estimate and your syllable count. Select any passage to see its word count on its own — handy for checking one section of an essay against its allocation.
Set a word goal and the progress bar tracks you towards it, telling you how many words are left and flagging the moment you pass it. Reading and speaking speeds are adjustable: the defaults are 238 words per minute for silent reading, the adult average found across 190 studies by Brysbaert (2019), and 140 for speaking, a comfortable presentation pace. If you are timing a speech, read a paragraph aloud at your natural pace, count the words and put your own figure in — the speech timer can then keep you on track on the day.
Find & replace opens a bar above the text with match-case, whole-word and regular-expression options and a live count of matches; Replace all can be undone. Focus hides everything except your words and a small counter, in full screen where the browser allows it. Press Esc to come back.
Reading level: what the Flesch score means
The Flesch reading ease score rates text from 0 to 100 using two things: the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word. Short sentences and short words score higher. The Flesch–Kincaid grade uses the same inputs to estimate the US school grade needed to follow the text; we add the UK school-year equivalent, which is one year higher.
| Score | Level | Typical of |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | Very easy | Children’s books |
| 70–90 | Easy to fairly easy | Popular fiction, conversational copy |
| 60–70 | Plain English | Most good web pages, GOV.UK guidance, newspapers |
| 50–60 | Fairly difficult | Broadsheet features, trade press |
| 30–50 | Difficult | Academic and technical writing |
| 0–30 | Very difficult | Legal contracts, scientific papers |
To raise a low score, split long sentences first — the longest sentence link jumps straight to the worst offender, and the long sentences count shows how many run past 25 words. Then swap long words for short ones where the meaning survives. The score needs at least 30 words and two sentences to mean anything, and the syllable counter is tuned for English: for other languages, treat the number as a rough guide only.
How words, sentences and pages are counted
- Words are runs of characters separated by spaces or line breaks that contain at least one letter or number. Hyphenated words such as well-known and contractions such as don’t count as one word, as they do in Microsoft Word and Google Docs; a lone dash, bullet or emoji is not a word. Words joined by an em dash without spaces are counted separately.
- Chinese, Japanese and Thai are written without spaces, so the browser’s built-in dictionary segmenter splits them into words instead of treating a whole sentence as one.
- Sentences end at a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis followed by a space, or at a blank line. Abbreviations such as Dr., e.g. and approx. and initials in names do not end a sentence.
- Paragraphs are non-empty lines.
- Pages are estimated at 500 words single-spaced and 250 double-spaced, the usual figures for 12-point Times New Roman on A4 or Letter with standard margins. Real page counts vary with font, headings and spacing.
Counts can differ by a word or two from a word processor on unusual input — URLs, numbers with spaces in them, text pasted with non-breaking spaces — but for essays and articles the totals match. For a character-level breakdown with social media and SMS limits, use the character counter.
Keyword density and repeated words
The keyword density list shows your most frequent words or two- and three-word phrases, how many times each appears and what share of the text it makes up. With Ignore stop words ticked, very common words — the, and, of, it’s — are left out, and phrases that start or end with one are skipped, so the list shows what your text is actually about.
Writers use it to catch a pet word repeated too often; SEO editors use it to check that a page is about its target phrase without stuffing it. There is no magic percentage — search engines have not rewarded a fixed density for many years — but if one phrase stands at 4–5% of a short article, it will read as repetitive to people too. For a full frequency table of every word, with CSV export and a chart, open the word frequency counter.
Your draft and privacy
With auto-save on, your text is stored in this browser’s local storage on this device only, and restored when you come back. It is never uploaded. Turn auto-save off, or press Clear, and the saved copy is deleted. Private or incognito windows discard it when closed, and very large texts (several megabytes) may exceed the browser’s storage quota — the status line tells you if that happens, so download a copy.
Frequently asked questions
How many words is a page?
About 500 words single-spaced or 250 words double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman or Arial with 2.5 cm (1 inch) margins. Larger fonts, headings, lists and dialogue reduce that. The word counter shows both estimates in the details list, but if your brief sets a page limit, check the final document in your word processor too.
How long does it take to read or say my text?
Divide the word count by the speed. Adults read silently at around 238 words per minute on average, and speak at about 130–150 words per minute in a presentation. A 1,000-word article is roughly a four-minute read and a seven-minute talk. You can change both speeds to match your own pace and the times update immediately.
Is my text saved, and can anyone else see it?
Only you can see it. With auto-save on, the draft is stored in your own browser’s local storage on this device so it survives a refresh or a closed tab. Nothing is sent to a server. Untick auto-save or press Clear to delete the saved copy; private windows discard it automatically when closed.
Does the word counter count hyphenated words and numbers?
Yes. A hyphenated word such as “long-term” counts as one word, a number such as 2026 or 3.5 counts as one word, and contractions like “you’re” count as one, matching Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Standalone symbols, dashes and emoji are not counted as words, though they still count as characters.
What is a good Flesch reading ease score?
For general web content, aim for 60 or above, which is plain English that most adults read comfortably. Marketing and consumer guidance often aims for 70 or more. Academic, legal and technical writing commonly scores below 50, which is acceptable for a specialist audience. The fastest way to improve a score is to shorten your longest sentences.
Why is my count different from Microsoft Word?
Usually by only a word or two, and the cause is almost always punctuation used as a word: a spaced dash, a bullet symbol or an emoji that Word counts but we do not, or text joined by an em dash that Word treats as one word. Footnotes, text boxes and headers are also excluded from Word’s main count unless you tick the option.