How many words is your text (and why Word's count sometimes disagrees)

You wrote something with a word limit (a bio, a summary, a school assignment) and need to confirm how many words you're at. Opening all of Word just for that is overkill, and pasting the text into a search engine doesn't always give a reliable number.

What it measures, besides words

The counter updates five numbers live as you type: words, characters with spaces, characters without spaces, paragraphs, and an estimated reading time.

• Paste or type your text into the box.
• Watch the cards update instantly, with no button to press.
• Keep editing: every stat recalculates on each keystroke.

Why the word count sometimes disagrees between tools

There's no single universal standard for what counts as "a word": some tools treat a hyphen as a word separator, others don't; some ignore standalone numbers, others count them. So it's normal to see a small difference (a few words) between Word, Google Docs, and a tool like this one for the same text. If a word limit is strict, the safest bet is to measure with whatever tool the person reviewing it will use.

How the reading time is calculated

It divides the word count by 200, an average silent-reading speed, and rounds to the nearest minute (with a one-minute floor), a quick way to estimate how long a text will take someone to read before publishing it.

Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere: everything is calculated in your browser. This and other text tools are free at Giga Useful Tools.