How to use
- Type or paste your text into the box. Counts update as you type.
- Read the main numbers at the top and the details on the right.
- Check the bars for common limits — tweets, meta descriptions, essays.
- See the most frequent words to spot repetition.
Options explained
- Words
- Words in alphabetic languages are split on spaces and punctuation; each Chinese, Japanese or Korean character counts as one word, the same as Microsoft Word.
- Characters
- What you see as one character counts as one — including emoji made of several code points and letters with accents. Spaces and line breaks are included.
- Bytes
- Size in UTF-8. English letters are 1 byte, most accented letters 2, Chinese characters 3 and emoji 4 — useful for database and SMS limits.
- Reading time
- At 238 words per minute for English (the average silent-reading speed in a 2019 meta-analysis by Brysbaert) and 300 characters per minute for Chinese.
Common length limits
| Where | Limit |
|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters |
| Google title link | About 60 characters before truncation |
| Meta description | About 155–160 characters in results |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters |
| Common App personal essay | 650 words |
| SMS (GSM-7) | 160 characters per message |
Frequently asked questions
Does it count words the same as Microsoft Word and Google Docs?
For English prose the counts match in almost all cases. Differences come from edge cases such as hyphenated words, numbers with separators and URLs, which each program treats slightly differently.
How are Chinese characters counted?
Each Chinese character counts as one word and one character, which is how Chinese word limits are usually defined.
Why is the character count different from JavaScript's length?
JavaScript counts UTF-16 code units, so an emoji like 👍🏽 has a length of 4. This counter uses grapheme clusters, so it counts it as 1, matching what you see.
Is my text saved?
No. Everything is counted in your browser and nothing is stored or uploaded.
Privacy
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files and text are processed on your device and are never uploaded to our servers.