How to count words, characters, and reading time

Whether you're hitting an essay's word count, a job application's character limit, or a 280-character social post, you need an accurate, live count. This guide covers what actually counts as a word and how to track totals as you write — privately, in your browser.

The fastest way

Paste or type into the Word Counter and the word, character, sentence, and reading-time totals appear and update as you go. No button to press.

What counts as a word (and a character)

• Words — runs of characters split by spaces or line breaks; hyphenated terms count as one.
• Characters with spaces — every character, used by SMS and many form limits.
• Characters without spaces — used by some academic and publishing counts.
• Sentences and reading time — handy for pacing a talk or estimating effort.

The Word Counter shows all of these at once, so you can match any requirement.

Common limits to know

• Tweet/X post: 280 characters.
• Meta description (SEO): ~150–160 characters.
• UCAS-style personal statement: often a character limit, spaces included.
• Essays: usually a word count, sometimes ±10%.

Tidying the text too

If you also need to change capitalisation — Title Case a heading, or lowercase a shouty paragraph — the Case Converter does that in the same private, in-browser way.

A note on privacy

The Word Counter processes everything locally — your draft is never uploaded or logged, so notes, essays, and confidential copy stay with you.

Open the Word Counter →