Word Counter & Character Counter with Reading Time

What the Word Counter counts

Words: whitespace-separated tokens (regex \\S+). Punctuation-attached words count as one.
Characters: full string length. Toggle "no whitespace" to exclude spaces, tabs, newlines.
Sentences: count of terminal ., !, ? followed by whitespace or end of string. Handles runs like "..." and "!!".
Paragraphs: blocks separated by blank lines.
Lines: newline-separated, including blank lines.
Bytes: UTF-8 byte count, not character count. Emoji and CJK characters take multiple bytes.

Platform character limits reference

The counter checks your text live against the most common platform limits (as of April 2026):

Platform	Limit	Notes
Meta title (Google)	60 chars	Truncation point in SERPs. Use every char.
Meta description	160 chars	Mobile may truncate earlier at ~105.
X / Twitter post	280 chars	URLs count as 23 chars regardless of actual length.
Bluesky post	300 chars	Counted as graphemes.
LinkedIn headline	220 chars	Post text separately allows 3000.
YouTube title	100 chars	Mobile shows ~70. Front-load keywords.
SMS	160 chars	Longer texts split into multi-part SMS.

Reading time methodology

Adult reading speed averages 200-250 words per minute for technical prose, 300 WPM for easy reading. This tool uses 200 WPM for reading time (medium complexity) and 130 WPM for speaking time (natural conversational pace for narration and presentations).

Common use cases

SEO: check that meta title fits under 60 chars before you ship.
Social media: live char counter as you draft X/Bluesky posts.
Copywriting: verify body copy length for email subject lines (ideal: under 50 chars).
Academic & editorial: hit word-count limits exactly for essays, abstracts, or journal submissions.
Script writing: use speaking-time estimate to target a video length.

Frequently asked questions

Why does "characters" differ from "bytes"?

A character is one visible glyph. A byte is the lowest-level storage unit. ASCII characters take 1 byte each. Accented Latin characters, CJK, and emoji take 2-4 bytes each in UTF-8. For database column sizing, HTTP body Content-Length, or TLS record size, use bytes. For visual length, use characters.

How does sentence detection handle abbreviations like "e.g."?

Imperfectly. A period inside an abbreviation will over-count sentences slightly. For precise counts on dense abbreviation-heavy text (legal, academic), expect ~5% variance from a human count. For normal prose, accuracy is within 1-2%.

Does this handle emoji and multi-byte characters correctly?

Yes. JavaScript's native string length counts UTF-16 code units (which splits most emoji into 2), so "🦊" counts as 2 characters in traditional string-length terms. This matches how X, LinkedIn, and most platforms count. Byte count uses UTF-8 (so "🦊" = 4 bytes).

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. Everything runs in your browser. Open DevTools → Network and paste text: no requests. Your text never leaves your device.

Why is my "words per minute" calculation different on other tools?

Different tools use different WPM constants (150, 200, 225, 250). This tool uses 200 for reading (research median for adults on technical text) and 130 for speaking (public-speaking standard). For academic work cite the constant you use.