How to count words and characters in your text

Live word, character, sentence, and paragraph counts — plus reading time — for anything with a limit.

Word and character limits are everywhere: essays and abstracts, meta descriptions (about 155 characters), tweets (280), LinkedIn posts, grant applications, cover letters. The Toolsfully word counter updates every count live as you type or paste. And because people paste unpublished drafts and personal documents into word counters, this one is built so your text never leaves your device.

Step-by-step

1. Open the Word Count tool. Go to Text Tools — the Word Count tab is selected by default.
2. Paste or type your text. All six tiles — words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and reading time — update instantly.
3. Edit in place. Trim your text right in the box and watch the counts drop until you're under the limit.

Tips

• Reading time uses 200 wpm. That's the widely used average for adult silent reading — handy for estimating blog posts and speeches.
• "Characters" includes spaces. Most platform limits (like Twitter/X) count spaces, so use the main character tile. The "without spaces" tile is there for assignments that specify it.
• Paragraphs are separated by line breaks. Blocks of text separated by one or more empty lines each count as a paragraph.

Frequently asked questions

How are words counted?

Any run of characters separated by spaces or line breaks counts as a word — the same method word processors use, so counts should match what your teacher or editor sees.

Is there a length limit?

No practical one — it comfortably handles book-length text, all locally.

Is my text private?

Completely. Counting happens in your browser; nothing you paste is sent anywhere.