Count Words Online

Get an accurate word, character and sentence count for any text — essays, posts and reports.

Count words, characters and sentences in any text. Free online word counter for writers and students. Words are separated on any whitespace and empty.

Count Words Online examples

InputOutput
The quick brown fox jumps5 words, 25 characters, 21 without spaces

How the count words online works

  1. Text is split on whitespace and empty tokens are dropped.
  2. Characters are counted with and without spaces.
  3. Counts update live as you type.

Rules and edge cases

  • Words are separated on any whitespace and empty tokens are discarded, so double spaces never inflate the count.
  • Hyphenated compounds count as one word and numbers count as words, matching how Word and Google Docs count.
  • Characters are reported both with and without spaces, plus sentence and paragraph counts.
  • The character counter focuses on limits per character; this page leads with the word total.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my word count differ from Microsoft Word?

Counters disagree on hyphenated compounds, numbers, footnotes and text in tables. Differences of a percent or two on a long document are normal.

How many words is a typical page?

Roughly 250 double-spaced or 500 single-spaced words per A4 page in 12pt — use it as a rough guide, not a specification.