Word counter
Count words, characters, and reading time as you type.
Word counter, without the extra steps.
Check the length of a draft without sending its text to a service. The counter uses Unicode-aware word segmentation where supported and shows characters, sentences, and a reading-time estimate.
How to use this tool
- 1Paste or type your text.
- 2Read the live word and character counts.
- 3Edit your draft and see counts update.
When Word counter is the right tool
- An essay, abstract, or application has a strict word limit.
- Ad copy or a meta description must fit a character budget.
- You want a reading-time estimate for a post or script.
- A draft needs checking without pasting it into an online editor.
How each number is defined
Words are runs of non-whitespace, matching the convention used by most word processors, so "twenty-one" and "3.5" each count as one word. Characters are Unicode code points, so an accented letter or an emoji counts once rather than as multiple bytes. Sentences are detected from terminal punctuation, which means abbreviations like "e.g." can inflate the count slightly.
Why counts differ between tools
Word processors, submission portals, and social platforms each define a word or character slightly differently, particularly around hyphens, URLs, and emoji. Twitter-style platforms often count a URL as a fixed length regardless of its real one. Treat any limit as approximate and leave a small margin rather than submitting at exactly the maximum.
A few quick answers.
Paste or type your text. Read the live word and character counts. Edit your draft and see counts update.
Tool inputs are processed in your browser. Crate has no upload endpoint and no accounts. Downloaded site assets and a cookie-free page-view count still require a connection; your files and text are not included in those requests.
Reading time assumes 200 words per minute. Sentence counts are punctuation-based estimates; character counts use Unicode code points, not visible grapheme clusters.
Applications differ on hyphens, numbers, URLs, and emoji. Treat any limit as approximate and leave a small margin rather than submitting at the exact maximum.
From the word count at a typical silent reading pace. Dense technical writing reads slower than the estimate suggests.