Word Counter
Instantly analyze your text. Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs. Discover keyword density, reading time, and more.
What Can You Measure With a Word Counter?
Paste or type any text into the box above and instantly see your word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count, keyword density, and estimated reading time — all updated in real time as you type.
Knowing your word count matters more than most writers realize. Essays and academic assignments usually specify a word target, and going too far over or under can cost you marks. Blog posts tend to perform best for SEO in the 1,000 to 2,000 word range, giving search engines enough substance without padding. Resumes have a surprisingly narrow sweet spot — 475 to 600 words — enough to demonstrate value without overwhelming a hiring manager.
For longer projects, novelists typically aim for 70,000 to 100,000 words depending on genre. Speech writers use the 130 words-per-minute benchmark to time a presentation, so a 10-minute speech needs roughly 1,300 words. And on social media, Twitter enforces a strict 280-character limit per tweet, making every character count.
Everything runs entirely in your browser. Your text is never sent to a server, so your drafts stay 100% private.
Yes, our Word Counter is 100% free with no limits, hidden fees, or subscriptions.
No, your text never leaves your browser. All text processing and keyword analysis is performed locally on your device ensuring total privacy.
Our word counter automatically filters out common English stop words (like 'the', 'and', 'a') and calculates the percentage of the most frequently used meaningful keywords in your text.
One page single-spaced is approximately 500 words using 12pt Times New Roman with 1-inch margins. Double-spaced, one page holds about 250 words. Font choice and line spacing affect these numbers significantly — larger fonts like Verdana fit fewer words, while the standard academic format (double-spaced, 12pt) gives roughly 250 words per page.
For SEO, the sweet spot for most blog posts is 1,500 to 2,500 words. Short posts of 300-500 words can rank for low-competition queries, but in-depth posts of 1,500+ words tend to earn more backlinks and rank higher over time. For pillar pages and comprehensive guides, 2,000 to 4,000 words is common. The best length is whatever fully answers the reader's question without padding.
The average adult reads 200 to 250 words per minute silently. Speed readers can reach 400-600 wpm with some loss in comprehension. For audio content, the average speaking pace is 125 to 150 words per minute conversationally, or about 130-160 wpm for prepared speeches and podcasts. Our tool uses 225 wpm for reading time estimates, which reflects a typical online reader.
Here are typical word count targets: short essay (250-500 words), college essay (500-650 words), standard essay (1,000-2,000 words), resume (475-600 words), blog post (1,000-2,500 words), research paper (3,000-5,000 words), short story (1,000-7,500 words), novel (70,000-100,000 words), 5-minute speech (625-750 words), 10-minute speech (1,300-1,500 words).
A standard tweet on X (formerly Twitter) is limited to 280 characters, including spaces and punctuation. URLs are shortened to 23 characters regardless of actual length. Twitter Blue / X Premium subscribers can post longer content. Use the character counter above to check your tweet length before posting.
Related Guides
How Long Should a Cover Letter Be?
The ideal cover letter is 300-400 words on one page. Word count by industry plus a working structure.
CareerCollege Essay Word Count Guide
Common App 650, UC 350, supplementals. Full word count guide for college applications.
CareerExecutive Resume Length: 1 vs 2 Pages
When one page works (475-600 words) vs when two pages is justified (700-1,000 words).
SpeechHow Many Words is a 5 Minute Speech?
Find out how many words you need for any speech length with a full reference table.
Sources & References
- Reading speed of 225 words per minute (silent reading) is the average adult rate reported by Brysbaert (2019) in a meta-analysis published in Journal of Memory and Language.
- Speaking pace of 130 words per minute reflects the conversational guidance published by the National Speakers Association.
- Page count formulas use the canonical Microsoft Word default settings: 12pt Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, single or double line spacing.
- Stop-word filtering for keyword density excludes the 100 most common English function words (the, and, a, of, to, in, etc.).