Text Analysis Tools

Word Counter

Measure words, code-unit characters, characters without whitespace, grapheme clusters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading time locally as you edit text.

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100% privateYour input stays on this deviceLightning fastNo upload round-tripBrowser-basedProcessing runs on this deviceFree to useNo account required

What Word Counter does

Word Counter analyzes entered text live and reports several measures rather than one ambiguous character total. Where available, Intl.Segmenter identifies word-like segments and user-perceived grapheme clusters across Unicode text.

Characters uses JavaScript string length, which counts UTF-16 code units; grapheme clusters better approximate visible characters. Reading time rounds up from a fixed rate of 200 words per minute, with any non-empty word count showing at least one minute.

How to use Word Counter

  1. Paste or type the exact text to measure.
  2. Choose the metric that matches the destination's definition of words or characters.
  3. Review sentence and paragraph estimates around abbreviations, headings, and unusual punctuation.
  4. Use the reading-time estimate as a planning approximation rather than a promise for every reader.

Important details

Characters versus graphemes

A visible emoji or accented grapheme may contain multiple UTF-16 code units. The two counters expose that distinction instead of implying that every technical character count matches what a reader sees.

Sentence and paragraph heuristics

Sentences are estimated from text ending at periods, exclamation marks, question marks, or input end. Paragraphs are non-empty blocks separated by blank lines; editorial conventions can differ.

Practical uses

  • Check an article, assignment, abstract, or form against a word limit.
  • Compare technical character and visible-grapheme counts for Unicode text.
  • Estimate reading time at the fixed 200-words-per-minute rate.

Privacy and limitations

All counting happens in the browser and the entered text is not sent to PagesTools. Sensitive material can still be exposed through clipboard history, extensions, screenshots, or the local device.

Input is capped at two million characters. Language segmentation support varies by browser, and counts may differ from a publisher, social network, school, or application that uses its own tokenization and whitespace rules.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Why are character and grapheme counts different?

Character uses UTF-16 code units, while grapheme clusters approximate visible user-perceived characters. Emoji, combining marks, and some scripts can occupy several code units in one grapheme.

How is reading time calculated?

The word count is divided by 200 and rounded up to a whole minute. It is a fixed planning estimate and does not account for text difficulty or an individual reader's pace.

Will this match a school or social platform's word count?

Not always. Platforms can define hyphens, apostrophes, emoji, URLs, and whitespace differently. Use the destination's own counter when its rule is authoritative.