Free Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with reading time and your most used words.
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How to use this tool
Captions, scripts, blog posts and school assignments all come with a length target. Paste or type your text and the counter updates on every keystroke: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines, plus how long the text takes to read or say out loud. A list of your most used words shows where you repeat yourself.
- 01
Paste or type your text
Add a caption, script, essay or any other draft to the box. Text up to 100,000 characters is counted in your browser.
- 02
Read the counts
Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and lines update as you type. Reading and speaking time estimate how long the text takes to get through.
- 03
Edit and copy
Trim or expand the draft until it hits your target, check the most used words for repetition, then copy the summary into your brief or notes.
How words are counted
Words are counted the way a reader sees them, in English and many other languages. • Hyphenated words such as “dish-washer” and contractions such as “we’ll” count as one word. • Numbers count as words; punctuation and emoji are skipped. • Chinese and Japanese text is split into dictionary words, so a ten-character sentence may count as four or five words. For a character count, read the Characters figure.
Reading time and speaking time
Reading time uses 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for English non-fiction reported in a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a typical pace for presentations and voiceovers. For Chinese, Japanese and Korean text the tool uses about 300 characters per minute for reading and 220 for speaking. Treat both figures as estimates; your own pace may be faster or slower.
Common length targets
• A single-spaced page holds roughly 500 words; a double-spaced page about 250. • A 60-second voiceover is about 150 words. • An Instagram caption folds after about 125 characters, so the first sentence matters most. • A LinkedIn post shows around 210 characters before “see more”. For platform character limits, open the character counter, which checks one text against 16 platform fields at once.
Use the most used words list
The list shows the ten words you use most often, with how many times each appears and its share of all words. Common function words such as “the” and “and” are left out so the list points to real repetition. If one word appears far more than the others, try a synonym or rewrite one of the sentences.
Frequently asked questions
How do I count the words in a document?
Open the document, select all the text, copy it and paste it into the box on this page. The word count appears immediately, along with characters, sentences and paragraphs.
Does the counter count characters with spaces?
Yes. It shows both: Characters includes spaces and line breaks, and Characters without spaces leaves all whitespace out. Emoji and accented letters count as one character each.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time divides the word count by 238 words per minute, an average silent reading speed for English. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute. Text under a minute is shown in seconds.
How many words are on one page?
It depends on font, size and spacing, but a common rule of thumb is about 500 words for a single-spaced page and about 250 for a double-spaced page with a 12-point font.
Are numbers and hyphenated words counted?
Numbers such as 350 count as one word. Hyphenated words and contractions count as one word. Punctuation, symbols and emoji are not counted as words.
Does it work with Chinese, Japanese or Korean text?
Yes. Chinese, Japanese and Korean text is split into dictionary words, and reading time is based on characters per minute. Many style guides count Chinese by characters, so use the Characters figure when your target is a character count.
Does it match Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
For ordinary prose the counts are very close. Editors treat dashes, slashes and URLs slightly differently: text joined by an em dash, such as “studio—mug”, may count as one word in one editor and two in another, so a long document can differ by a few words.
How do I count sentences and paragraphs?
Sentences are counted at full stops, question marks, exclamation marks and ellipses followed by a space or the end of the text. Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by an empty line.
Is my text uploaded or saved?
No. Counting happens in your browser tab and the text isn’t sent to SocQ or stored. Clearing the box or closing the page removes it.
Is the word counter free?
Yes. It’s free with no signup, no ads inside the tool and no limit on how often you use it.
For developers
Count words across public posts at scale
Researching caption length or video descriptions across many accounts? SocQ APIs return public posts and video details from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn as structured data, so you can measure text length for thousands of posts instead of pasting them one by one.
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