📊 Contador de palabras

Free Online Word Counter — Count Words, Characters & More

Our word counter tool provides instant, real-time statistics the moment you type or paste your text. No button to click, no page to reload — every stat updates live as you write. It measures word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentence count, paragraph count, line count, average word length, and estimated reading time.

Whether you're a student checking an essay against a word limit, a freelance writer tracking billable words, an SEO professional optimizing content length, or a social media manager respecting platform character limits — this tool gives you every metric you need in a single view.

Why Word Count Matters

Word count is more than a number — it's a signal for quality, thoroughness, and audience expectations. Here's why tracking word count matters across different contexts:

• Academic writing: Most essays, dissertations, research papers, and assignments have strict word limits. Going over or under can affect your grade. Our counter keeps you informed in real time so there are no last-minute surprises.
• SEO and content marketing: Blog posts typically perform best in search results at 1,500–2,500 words. Comprehensive guides and pillar pages often exceed 3,000 words. Short content under 500 words rarely ranks for competitive keywords.
• Social media character limits: Twitter/X has a 280-character limit per tweet. LinkedIn posts perform best under 1,300 characters. Instagram captions cut off at 125 characters in the feed. SMS messages split at 160 characters. Our character counter tracks all of these instantly.
• Freelance billing: Many content clients pay per word. An accurate word count means accurate invoices and prevents disputes.
• Reading time estimation: Showing "5 min read" on articles increases click-through rates. Readers plan their time around reading estimates. Average reading speed is 200–250 words per minute for adults.
• Publishing requirements: Literary agents, magazine editors, and journal publishers specify exact word count ranges for submissions. A 7,500-word short story is publishable; an 8,500-word one may be rejected for format reasons alone.

What Each Statistic Means

Understanding exactly what each metric measures helps you use them correctly:

• Words: Sequences of non-whitespace characters separated by spaces, tabs, or newlines. Numbers, hyphenated words, and contractions each count as one word. "Don't" = 1 word; "well-being" = 1 word.
• Characters (with spaces): Every character in the text, including spaces, tabs, and newlines. This is the standard for character-limited platforms like Twitter.
• Characters (without spaces): Only non-whitespace characters. Some publishers and ad platforms use this metric for billing and submission requirements.
• Sentences: Counted by punctuation markers — periods (.), exclamation points (!), and question marks (?). A paragraph of 3 sentences ending with "." counts as 3.
• Paragraphs: Blocks of text separated by one or more blank lines. A wall of unbroken text counts as 1 paragraph regardless of length.
• Lines: Total number of line breaks in the text, including empty lines. Useful for structured content like code, CSV, or lists.
• Reading time: Calculated at 200 words per minute — a conservative adult reading pace for general content. Technical text may take longer; skimming takes less time.

Word Count Guidelines by Content Type

Different types of content have different optimal lengths. Here's a quick reference:

• Tweet / X post: Under 280 characters (ideally 70–100 characters for retweet space)
• LinkedIn post: 150–300 words for engagement; under 1,300 characters before "See more"
• Email subject line: Under 50 characters (under 30 for mobile preview)
• Meta description (SEO): 150–160 characters
• Product page description: 300–500 words
• News article: 300–800 words
• Standard blog post: 1,000–1,500 words
• SEO-optimized blog post: 1,500–2,500 words
• Long-form guide / pillar page: 3,000–10,000 words
• Short story (literary submission): 1,000–7,500 words
• Novella: 20,000–40,000 words
• Novel: 70,000–100,000 words

How Reading Time Is Calculated

Our tool estimates reading time at 200 words per minute (WPM), which represents an average adult's comfortable reading pace for general online content. Research from the Journal of Reading Research and other sources consistently shows adults reading 200–250 WPM for general content.

Context affects this number significantly: technical documentation and scientific papers are read at 100–150 WPM, while speed readers can exceed 400 WPM. Our 200 WPM baseline represents the most conservative, universally applicable estimate — meaning most readers will finish faster than the estimate, rather than slower.

Use our dedicated reading time calculator to test different reading speeds (slow, normal, fast) and get breakdowns for different audience types.

Privacy: Your Text Stays on Your Device

All counting and analysis runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your text is never sent to our servers, never stored, and never used for any purpose. This makes our tool safe for confidential documents, proprietary content, legal drafts, and any sensitive material you wouldn't want transmitted online.