Count words and characters in your text

Type or paste text in the input to see the mixed count, reading-time estimate and six detailed counts. Copy text copies your input; Copy count summary copies the six labels and numbers, adding a compatibility note when counts use an approximation.

Choose Clear text to remove your input. You can restore it until you start typing again or refresh the page.

Enter a custom limit and choose mixed count, character count or characters excluding whitespace. The page shows how much room remains and warns when you go over. It will not delete or truncate your text. This comparison does not reproduce the rules used by Word or a social platform.

Mixed count and reading time

The mixed count adds Han characters and English words. It excludes digits, punctuation and whitespace. For example, “你好, world! 123” gives a mixed count of 3: two Han characters plus one English word. This is a convenience for text containing both Han and English, not a universal word count. Use a character count for other writing systems.

The estimate uses Han characters and English words only: 300 Han characters or 200 English words per minute. It combines their seconds and rounds the total up to a whole second. A result of 0 shows “—”; under 60 seconds shows “Under 1 minute”; 60 seconds or more rounds up to a whole minute. For example, 299 Han characters produce 59.8 seconds before rounding, so the display is “About 1 minute”. Kana and other writing systems are not counted. Text with no Han characters or English words shows “—”; topic and reading pace also affect actual reading time.

Choose an example below the input to see how the counting methods differ. Loading one replaces the current text. Choose Restore previous text to bring it back; editing afterward removes the backup.

Which count should I use?

Use Han characters when you need that script's character count. For text that mixes Han and English, the mixed count may be useful. Choose characters or characters excluding whitespace when digits and punctuation matter; use English words for a count of Latin words. The six detailed counts overlap, so do not add them together.

Han characters exclude English letters, digits and punctuation. The count excluding whitespace still includes punctuation. If a form has its own rules, check those instructions first.

Characters and characters excluding whitespace

Character count includes letters, digits, punctuation, spaces and line breaks. A grapheme such as “é” or a family emoji is usually counted as one character when your browser supports grapheme segmentation. A line break typed in the input also counts.

The count excluding whitespace removes spaces, tabs, line breaks and full-width spaces. Some invisible characters, such as a zero-width space, are not Unicode whitespace and may still count.

Han characters

This count includes characters in the Unicode Han script, including traditional and simplified Chinese characters and Japanese kanji. It does not count English letters, digits, punctuation or kana.

English words

A run of Latin letters counts as one English word. An apostrophe or standard hyphen can join parts into one word, as in “don't”, “rock’n’roll” and “state-of-the-art”. Accented Latin letters such as those in “café” are included.

Digits are not English words. A digit, underscore, other dash or repeated joiner can split a run of letters. For example, “abc123def” counts as two English words.

Lines and paragraphs

An empty input has zero lines. Each manual line break adds a line, including a final blank line. A line that wraps because of the input width does not add to the count.

A blank line separates paragraphs. A line containing only whitespace is blank, and several consecutive blank lines still separate one paragraph break. Leading or trailing blank lines do not count as paragraphs; whitespace-only input has zero paragraphs.

For “你好 world!”, the character count is 9, the count excluding whitespace is 8, the Han count is 2 and the English-word count is 1. It has one line and one paragraph.

“don't state-of-the-art” is two English words. “foo_bar” and “co–op” also count as two each. A family emoji is usually one character, though older browsers may count parts separately.

If the result differs from a submission form or document editor, check whether it counts characters, English words or characters excluding whitespace.

Long text can take a moment to count. If you see the processing-limit message, split the text into smaller parts and try again. Your input remains intact; the tool does not shorten it automatically.

In compatibility mode, some emoji sequences or combining marks may count differently. Update your browser and try again if you need grapheme-based character counts.

Do punctuation and spaces count?

They count as characters. Choose the count excluding whitespace to remove spaces, tabs and line breaks; punctuation remains included.

Can I upload a Word or PDF file?

The tool accepts text that you type or paste. Copy the passage from your document and paste it here.

Why did my text disappear after refreshing?

The tool does not save a draft. Save the original in your own document before refreshing or closing the page.