Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimate reading time.
About Word Counter
Word Counter tallies words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in any text and estimates reading time. It's handy for hitting a word limit on an essay or post, or for sizing up an article before you commit to reading it. It accepts plain text, HTML, and Markdown, and runs entirely in your browser so your draft is never uploaded.
- Category
- inspect
- Input
- Accepts: text/plain, text/html or text/markdown.
- Output
- Outputs: application/json.
- Cost
- Free, runs in your browser
- Memory
- low
Common uses
- Check a blog draft against a 1,000-word target before publishing
- Confirm a college essay or cover letter fits within a strict word limit
- Estimate reading time to label an article '5 min read' for your audience
- Measure a Markdown post's length without first rendering it to HTML
- Count characters for a platform with a hard limit, like a bio or meta description
- Compare the length of two drafts to see which is more concise
Frequently asked questions
What does the output include?
A JSON breakdown of word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count, and an estimated reading time.
Which input formats are supported?
Plain text, HTML, and Markdown. For HTML and Markdown it counts the readable content rather than the markup syntax.
Is my text uploaded to count it?
No. All counting happens in your browser, so unpublished drafts and private writing never leave your device.
How is reading time estimated?
It's derived from the word count using a typical average adult reading speed, so treat it as a close estimate rather than an exact figure.
Does it count Markdown symbols and HTML tags as words?
No. It focuses on the actual prose content, so syntax characters like # or <p> don't inflate the count.
Keywords
- word
- count
- character
- sentence
- paragraph
- reading
- time