Word Counter

A word counter that updates as you write

Word limits show up everywhere: essay prompts, scholarship applications, article briefs, abstracts, cover letters, and forms that cut you off at 250 or 500 words. Paste a draft or write directly in the box and the word count changes with every keystroke, so you can trim or expand until you hit the target. Characters, sentences, paragraphs, lines, and an estimated reading time sit underneath for when a brief asks for more than words.

How to count words

1. Type in the box, paste text from any document, email, or web page, or choose Upload Document to open a .txt, .md, .docx, or .pdf file.
2. Read the word count at the top — it updates immediately, with no button to press.
3. Check characters, sentences, paragraphs, lines, and reading time in the panel below the box.
4. Edit in place, then use Copy Text to take the revised text back to your document, or Clear Text to start over.

What counts as a word

A word is any group of characters between spaces, tabs, or line breaks that contains at least one letter or number. That rule is simple, predictable, and matches how most people count by eye:

• Contractions and possessives are one word: “don’t”, “it’s”, “Sam’s”.
• Hyphenated and joined words are one word: “well-known”, “this—that” (a dash with no spaces around it).
• Numbers, abbreviations, email addresses, and URLs are one word each: “3.14”, “e.g.”, “name@example.com”.
• Punctuation attached to a word doesn’t change the count: “Hello,” is still one word.
• A dash, bullet, or emoji standing on its own between spaces is not a word, so “wait — what” is two words.
• Extra spaces, tabs, and blank lines never add words.

How reading time is estimated

Reading time divides your word count by 238 words per minute — the average silent reading speed for adults reading non-fiction, from a 2019 review of nearly 200 reading-rate studies. So 500 words is about 2 minutes 6 seconds. Treat it as a guide: technical or unfamiliar material reads slower, and reading aloud is much slower than reading silently.

Your text stays on your device

• Words are counted by JavaScript running in your browser.
• Your text is never uploaded to Looty Tools or any other server.
• Uploaded documents are opened and read in your browser; the file itself is never sent to Looty Tools.
• Nothing is stored — refreshing or closing the page clears the box, so keep your own copy of anything important.

Limitations

• Uploads accept .txt and .md files up to 5 MB, Word .docx files up to 15 MB, and PDFs up to 25 MB and 50 pages. Older .doc files are not supported, and scanned or image-only PDFs have no text to count. Word headers and footers are not imported.
• Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and other languages written without spaces between words count each unbroken run as a single word. Use the character count for those languages instead.
• Words joined by a slash or dash without spaces, such as “and/or”, count as one word here; other counters may split them, so small differences on the same text are normal.
• Only the text in the box is counted. When you copy from a document, footnotes, headers, comments, and text boxes are left out unless you copy them too.
• Pasted and uploaded text is plain text only, so formatting such as bold, links, and images is dropped.
• Reading time is an average-based estimate, not a measurement of any particular reader.

Related text tools

• Character CounterCount characters with or without spaces.
• Sentence CounterCount the sentences in a piece of writing.
• Reading Time CalculatorEstimate how long a passage takes to read.
• Text to PDFTurn plain text into a clean PDF document.

Word Counter FAQ

What counts as a word?

Any group of characters separated by spaces, tabs, or line breaks that contains at least one letter or number. Contractions like "don’t", hyphenated words like "well-known", numbers like "3.14", and web addresses each count as one word. A dash or emoji standing on its own is not counted.

Why doesn’t my count match Microsoft Word or Google Docs exactly?

Every word processor applies its own rules to edge cases such as standalone dashes and symbols, slashes between words, and footnotes or headers that are not part of the pasted text. On ordinary prose the counts are usually identical or within a few words.

How is reading time calculated?

Reading time is your word count divided by 238 words per minute, the average adult silent reading speed for non-fiction reported in a 2019 review of reading-rate studies. Dense technical text usually takes longer; light, familiar text can be faster.

Does it count words in Chinese, Japanese, or Thai?

Only approximately. Those scripts are usually written without spaces between words, and this counter separates words at spaces, so an unbroken run of characters counts as one word. The character count is still accurate for those languages.

Can I upload a Word document or PDF instead of pasting?

Yes. Upload Document accepts .txt, .md, Word .docx, and text-based .pdf files, or you can drop a file onto the text box. The file is read in your browser — it is not sent to Looty Tools — and its text replaces whatever is in the box. Scanned PDFs without a text layer and older .doc files are not supported.

Is my text uploaded or saved?

No. Counting happens entirely in your browser and your text is never sent to Looty Tools. Nothing is saved either — refreshing or closing the page clears the box.

Is there a word limit?

There is no fixed limit. Because counting runs on your device, very long documents (hundreds of thousands of words) may update a little more slowly on older phones.