Character Counter
Count characters with and without spaces, plus words, sentences and paragraphs, live as you type. Nothing you paste leaves your browser.
What this counter measures
Six numbers update on every keystroke. Characters includes spaces and line breaks, which is what most forms and social limits actually enforce. Characters without spaces is the figure publishers use when they quote a maximum length for articles and abstracts.
Words are split on whitespace, the same rule Microsoft Word and Google Docs apply, so a total here matches a total there. Hyphenated compounds such as long-form count as one word. Sentences are detected at full stops, question marks and exclamation marks. Paragraphs are detected at line breaks, with blank lines collapsed.
When character counts matter more than word counts
Word counts dominate essays and manuscripts, but character counts decide a surprising number of everyday limits. A university application may cap a personal statement at 4,000 characters. A conference abstract might ask for 2,500 characters including spaces. Product descriptions on marketplaces, meta descriptions for search results, SMS messages and database fields all measure characters rather than words.
Because a character limit punishes long words, checking the no spaces figure is a fast way to spot padding. If your character count is high but your word count is low, you are probably reaching for the thesaurus a little too often.
Reading time, roughly
The reading time figure assumes 225 words per minute, close to the average for adult silent reading of general prose. Technical material slows readers down and fiction tends to speed them up. Treat it as a planning estimate rather than a promise.
A useful habit: paste your finished draft here, note the word count, then cut ten percent and read it again. The piece almost always gets better.
What we do not do with your text
Nothing. The counting logic is a few lines of JavaScript that run inside this tab. There is no request to a server, no storage in your browser and no analytics tied to the content of the box. You can confirm this by disconnecting from the internet after the page loads. The counter keeps working.
Character Counter FAQ
Does the character counter include spaces
Yes, the main Characters figure includes spaces and line breaks. The No spaces figure next to it excludes every whitespace character, which is the number to use when a limit explicitly says characters without spaces.
How are words counted
Text is split on any run of whitespace, so punctuation attached to a word does not create a separate word. This is the same rule Word and Google Docs use, which is why totals usually match exactly.
Is there a limit on how much I can paste
No limit is enforced by the tool. Practical limits come from your browser, which handles very long documents of several hundred thousand characters without trouble.
Can I use this counter for Chinese or Japanese text
You can, but note that these languages do not separate words with spaces. The word count will read as one word while the character count stays accurate, so use the character figure for CJK text.
Related tools
Character to Words Calculator
Estimate how many words a given number of characters turns into.
Open toolEssay Word Counter
Track essay length against a target with pages, reading time and averages.
Open toolTwitter Character Counter
Check your post against the 280 character limit before you publish.
Open tool