What the word counter shows
| Statistic | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Words | Total words, counted by splitting on spaces and punctuation |
| Characters | Every character including spaces |
| Characters (no spaces) | Letters, digits and punctuation only |
| Sentences | Sentences, ending at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark |
| Paragraphs | Blocks of text separated by blank lines |
| Unique words | How many different words you used |
| Reading time | Words divided by 200 words per minute |
| Speaking time | Words divided by 130 words per minute |
| Longest word | The longest word found |
| Top words | The five most frequent words, ignoring common function words |
How words are counted
A word is a run of letters and digits. Hyphenated words and words with an apostrophe, such as "well-known", "mother-in-law" and "don't", each count as one. Different programs, including word processors, make slightly different choices about numbers, symbols and URLs, so a count may differ by a few words.
Common word counts
- Short answer or discussion post: 100 to 300 words.
- College application essay: commonly up to 650 words for the Common App personal essay.
- Standard essay: 500 to 1,500 words.
- Blog post: 1,000 to 2,000 words is common for in-depth posts.
- Meta description: about 120 to 155 characters.
Always follow the limit in your own assignment brief or application form.
Reading and speaking time
Silent reading speeds vary widely, so the tool uses an average of 200 words per minute. Speaking is slower, so it uses 130. Adjust for your style and a pause for slides. For a range of reading speeds, use the Reading Time Calculator.
Go further
After counting, check clarity with the Readability Checker, find overused words with the Word Frequency Counter, or shorten your text with the Summarizer.
Limits
The counts follow general conventions and may differ from your word processor or from a submission system. Reading and speaking times are averages, not predictions for any one person. The tool counts text only: it does not count words inside images, footnotes you have not pasted or hidden formatting.