Writing and time tools
Word & Character Counter
Count words, characters, lines, paragraphs and UTF-8 bytes locally. See reading and speaking estimates, undo a clear, and export counts without your pasted text.
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How to use this tool
1. Type or paste plain text into the editor. Counts update as you edit; the page supports up to 50,000 UTF-16 code units.
2. Use Review counts to move keyboard focus to the result. Compare word, character, whitespace, line and paragraph counts.
3. Copy or print just the counts. Clear text removes the current input, and Undo clear restores it until you make another edit.
What counts as a word or character?
Where supported, the browser’s Unicode word segmentation counts word-like segments using an English locale. Character counts use grapheme clusters, so a combined emoji or accented character can count as one. UTF-16 code units are also shown for comparison with software limits.
Worked example
The plain text Hello world has 2 words, 11 characters including its space, and 10 characters excluding whitespace. It has one line, one paragraph and 11 UTF-8 bytes. A newline increases the line count; a blank line separates paragraphs.
Questions and assumptions
Why counts can differ
CRLF and CR line endings are normalised to LF before counting. Blank lines separate paragraphs. Word processors and platform character limits may use different rules. Older browsers use a clearly labelled basic fallback that counts Unicode code points and letter/number word groups.
Reading and speaking estimates
Reading time assumes 200 words per minute and speaking time assumes 130. Both round up to a whole second. These are simple planning assumptions, not assessments of comprehension, accessibility or individual pace. Counts export locally; the report omits the original text.
Sources and further reading
Built and maintained by Custom Logic. Page updated .