Instant word, character, sentence, and paragraph counts — with reading time estimates for five audience types, keyword density, and sentence analysis.
Free Word Counter & Reading Time Estimator | Instant Text Analysis
The most complete free word counter online. Paste any text and get instant word count, character count, sentence count, reading time for five audience types, keyword density, sentence length analysis, and unique word percentage — all updating live as you type.
What Does This Word Counter Do?
Most word counters give you a number. This one gives you a complete picture of your text. In one paste you get six core counts, reading time calibrated to your reader’s speed, a full audience breakdown, keyword density with frequency bars, and sentence-level metrics that tell you whether your writing is readable.
How to Use This Word Counter
Step 1 — Paste or type your text Paste any text into the editor — a blog post, email, social caption, essay, script, or anything else. Every metric updates instantly as you type. No button press, no page reload.
Step 2 — Set your reading speed Use the slider at the bottom of the editor to set the words-per-minute rate that matches your audience. Use the Slow, Average, and Fast presets for quick access to the three most common benchmarks. The reading time display updates immediately.
Step 3 — Check your reading time by audience The Audience panel breaks reading time down across five reader types — from slow readers at 150 wpm through to speed readers at 600 wpm. This is the most honest way to estimate how long your content will actually take to read across your full readership.
Step 4 — Review keyword density The keyword density table shows the top 20 most-used words in your text, sorted by frequency, with a visual bar showing relative prominence. Toggle the “Hide stopwords” option to filter out function words and see only the meaningful content keywords.
Step 5 — Check sentence analysis The sentence analysis panel shows four metrics: average sentence length, average word length, longest sentence, and unique word percentage. These are the most practical readability signals available without a full Flesch-Kincaid calculation.
Understanding Reading Time Estimates
Reading time estimates are based on words per minute — the average number of words a person reads in 60 seconds. The five audience benchmarks in this tool are:
Slow reader (150 wpm) — someone reading carefully, translating, or processing difficult technical content. This is also a reasonable estimate for reading aloud.
Average reader (238 wpm) — the most widely cited benchmark for adult reading speed on screen, based on research by Marc Brysbaert published in the Journal of Cognition. This is the default setting in this word counter.
Proficient reader (300 wpm) — a comfortable above-average reader, typical of regular readers and graduates. Many popular reading time calculators use this figure.
Fast reader (400 wpm) — an engaged, practiced reader consuming familiar content. This approximates the reading speed used by Medium’s reading time algorithm.
Speed reader (600 wpm) — an experienced speed reader using techniques like chunking and reduced subvocalisation. Used as an upper bound for realistic reading time estimates.
What the Counts Mean for Your Content
Word count is the primary metric for most content purposes. Blog posts under 300 words are considered thin content by Google. Comprehensive SEO articles typically run 1,500–3,000 words. Short-form social content targets under 280 characters for X posts or under 150 words for LinkedIn updates.
Character count matters for platforms with hard character limits — X (280 characters), SMS (160 characters per segment), meta descriptions (155–160 characters), and title tags (50–60 characters).
Sentence count and average sentence length are the most accessible readability signals. Research consistently shows that average sentence length under 20 words produces more readable content. Over 25 words per sentence and readers start to lose the thread. The sentence length bar in this tool turns green under 15 words per sentence, amber up to 25, and red above that.
Unique word percentage measures vocabulary diversity — what proportion of your words are used more than once. A higher percentage indicates richer vocabulary and less repetition. Typical blog content runs 60–75% unique words; highly technical documentation often runs lower due to necessary repetition of terminology.
Keyword density shows how prominently specific words feature in your text. For SEO purposes, a focus keyword appearing at 1–3% density is generally considered healthy. Above 3% risks keyword stuffing penalties. Below 0.5% may not signal sufficient relevance to search engines.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a word counter? A word counter is a tool that counts the number of words in a piece of text. Our free word counter goes further — it also counts characters, sentences, paragraphs, and unique words, calculates reading time for five different reader types, analyses keyword density, and measures sentence-length readability metrics.
How is reading time calculated? Reading time is calculated by dividing your total word count by the reading speed in words per minute. At the default speed of 238 wpm, a 1,000-word article takes approximately 4 minutes and 12 seconds to read. Adjust the speed slider to match your specific audience’s likely reading pace.
What is a good word count for a blog post? It depends on the goal. For SEO, comprehensive long-form content (1,500–3,000 words) tends to rank better because it covers a topic in sufficient depth. For social sharing and engagement, shorter posts (500–800 words) often perform better because they are easier to read in full. For email newsletters, 200–500 words is typically the sweet spot for open-to-click conversion. This word counter helps you hit your target length precisely.
Does character count include spaces? Yes — the Characters count includes all characters including spaces. The Characters (no spaces) count excludes spaces, which is useful for platforms that count characters differently. For reference, X counts all characters including spaces.
What is keyword density and why does it matter? Keyword density is the percentage of times a specific word appears in your total word count. For example, if “design” appears 10 times in a 500-word article, its density is 2%. For SEO content, keeping your focus keyword at 1–2% density is generally considered optimal — enough to signal relevance without appearing manipulative.
What counts as a sentence? This tool counts sentences by detecting sentence-ending punctuation — full stops, exclamation marks, and question marks. Text without any ending punctuation is counted as one sentence. Very long sentences without punctuation may skew the average sentence length metric.
What is a good unique word percentage? There is no single ideal figure, but content in the 60–80% range is typical for readable, well-written prose. Very low unique word percentages (below 50%) may indicate excessive repetition or a limited vocabulary range. Very high percentages (above 90%) may indicate that the text is so varied it lacks a clear focus — common in stream-of-consciousness writing.
Does this tool store my text? Never. All processing runs entirely in your browser. Your text is never sent to any server, stored in any database, or logged in any way. You can safely paste confidential documents, private emails, or unpublished work.
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No account required. No data stored. All processing happens locally in your browser.