Free online word counter - paste your text to instantly count words, characters (with/without spaces), sentences, lines, and estimate reading time. No registration required, all processing happens locally in your browser.
Word count typically refers to the number of words in English and other space-separated languages. Character count counts every single character including letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces, and line breaks. For Chinese text, each character is roughly equivalent to one word. The tool provides both Total Characters (including spaces) and Characters Without Spaces metrics.
No. All calculations are performed entirely locally in your browser using JavaScript. Your text is never sent over the network to any server. You can safely paste sensitive content.
Reading time is estimated based on an average silent reading speed of 220 words per minute, which is the average for adults in English-speaking countries. Note that Chinese reading speed is generally faster (around 400-500 characters per minute), so pure Chinese articles may take less time to read than estimated.
Word counting splits text by spaces and line breaks, which works well for space-separated languages like English. Chinese characters do not have spaces between them, so pure Chinese text will show a word count of 1. For Chinese text length, please use Total Characters or Characters Without Spaces, which work accurately for both Chinese and English.
The tool counts any text content: Chinese characters, English letters, numbers, punctuation in any language, line breaks, spaces, emoji, etc. You can copy and paste directly from Word, WeChat, web pages, emails, and more.
Google has no hard word count requirement, but mainstream SEO practices recommend in-depth content of 1000-2000 words (or about 500-1000 words in English) for better ranking potential. Meta Description should be 120-160 characters, Title should be 50-60 characters to avoid truncation in search results.
The current version counts lines (split by line breaks), not separate paragraphs. Line count can approximate paragraph structure - paragraphs separated by blank lines will show as multiple lines. Paragraph counting will be added in future versions.
A word counter is a fundamental tool for quantifying text length, with core metrics including character count, word count, sentence count, paragraph count, line count, and reading time. Whether writing essays as a student, editing manuscripts, creating social media content, optimizing for SEO, translating and proofreading, or composing emails and SMS messages with strict character limits, word counting is one of the most commonly used and essential text tools.
**Why use a word counter?** Various platforms have explicit content length limits: WeChat Official Accounts recommend 1500-3000 characters, SMS messages limited to 70 characters per message (Chinese SMS within 70 characters, excess billed as multiple messages), SEO Title recommended 50-60 characters, Meta Description recommended 120-160 characters, Chinese Gaokao essays require minimum 800 characters - exceeding or falling short may affect publishing results or result in rejection.
**Characters vs Words**: Chinese characters have no spaces between them - one character is essentially one unit, so Total Characters is roughly equivalent to Chinese 'word count' (excluding spaces and punctuation). Languages like English and French use spaces between words, making Word Count more accurate. This tool provides both metrics so users of all languages can find suitable references.
**Reading time estimation** is based on average silent reading speeds: approximately 220 words per minute for English (this tool's default), and about 400-500 characters per minute for Chinese. Reading time helps authors judge whether article length is appropriate for the target platform - WeChat articles are recommended for 3-6 minutes reading time, as longer articles reduce completion rates.
All calculations in this tool **happen locally in your browser** using JavaScript for real-time statistics. Text content is never uploaded to any server. The page works instantly when opened, requires no registration, and has no ad interruptions.
| Platform/Scenario | Character/Word Limit | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| WeChat Official Account articles (微信公众号) | Recommended 1500-3000 | characters | Longer articles see lower completion rates |
| Xiaohongshu (小红书) notes | Body max 1000 | characters | Titles best within 20 characters |
| Weibo (微博) | Max 2000 | characters | Over 140 characters folds as long post |
| Douyin/Kuaishou (抖音/快手) captions | Recommended 50-200 | characters | Sync with voiceover |
| Zhihu (知乎) answers | Recommended 800-3000 | characters | Professional answers can be longer |
| Meta Description (SEO) | Recommended 120-160 | characters | Longer gets truncated in search results |
| Title Tag (SEO) | Recommended 50-60 | characters | About 600 pixels wide |
| SMS Text Messages | Single max 70 | characters (Chinese counts as 2) | Excess auto-splits into multiple messages |
| Chinese Gaokao Essay | Minimum 800 | characters | Generally requires 800+ characters |
| Undergraduate Thesis | Typically 8000-15000 | characters | Varies by university requirements |
| Language | Slow (chars/words per min) | Average (chars/words per min) | Fast (chars/words per min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese (silent reading) | 200-300 chars/min | 400-500 chars/min | 600+ chars/min |
| Chinese (reading aloud) | 150-200 chars/min | 250-300 chars/min | 400+ chars/min |
| English (silent reading) | 150-200 words/min | 200-250 words/min | 300+ words/min |
| English (reading aloud) | 100-130 words/min | 130-180 words/min | 200+ words/min |
