How Are Words Counted? FAQ

Yes. Every count and score is calculated by JavaScript running in your own browser, and the tools never send your text anywhere: not to us, and not to any third party. There’s no account, and nothing you write is stored on a server.

Drafts in the main word counter are kept in your browser’s local storage on this device only, so they survive a refresh or an accidental tab close. Use Clear to remove the draft. Clearing your browser data also deletes it. The other tools don’t store your text at all.

We use Google Analytics to see which pages and tools are used. It sets cookies, but never receives the text you enter. We don’t show ads. Visitors in the UK and Europe don’t get these cookies without consent. The Privacy Policy has the details.

Once a page has loaded, its tool keeps working without a connection because nothing depends on a server. Moving to another page needs a connection unless your browser has it cached.

A word is any run of characters between spaces that contains at least one letter or number, which matches how most word processors count. Hyphenated words like “well-known” count as one word, and a lone dash or emoji does not count. Chinese, Japanese, and Thai text, which is written without spaces, is split into words using your browser’s built-in dictionary.

Yes. Characters are counted the way you see them, so “é”, “👍🏽”, and a family emoji each count as one, even though some are stored as several code points. The X post limit is the exception: it follows X’s own rules, where emoji count as two and every link counts as 23.

Sentences end at a period, question mark, exclamation mark, or line break, using your browser’s language rules, so most abbreviations don’t cause false breaks. Every line that contains text counts as a paragraph, the same as in most word processors.

Reading time assumes 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for adults found in a large 2019 review of reading research. Speaking time assumes 150 words per minute, a comfortable pace for presentations and voice-overs. The Reading Time Calculator lets you set your own speeds.

Scores run from 0 to 100, and higher means easier. Aim for 60 or above for general audiences and web copy. Scores between 30 and 50 are typical of academic or technical writing. Shorter sentences and shorter words raise the score. The formula is designed for English, so scores for other languages are not shown.

It shows which words and phrases you repeat most and how often they appear per 100 words. Use it to confirm your topic comes through, or to catch a word you have overused. Turn on “Ignore common words” to hide filler like “the” and “of”. Select any phrase to jump to it in your text.

Search engines cut off titles and descriptions by pixel width, not character count, so there’s no exact limit. As a rule of thumb, keep titles under about 60 characters and meta descriptions under about 160. The Character Counter shows how much room you have left for both.

Yes. The word counter is free to use, and so is every other tool on the site, with no sign-up, no usage limits, and no premium tier. You can use the results in personal and commercial work.

Any current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari on desktop, tablet, or phone. The tools adapt to small screens and work with a keyboard alone.

By default it only offers voices built into your device, which read your text locally. Some browsers also provide online voices, such as Chrome’s “Google” voices, which send the text to the browser maker to generate audio. Those are hidden unless you turn them on, and the tool labels them clearly.