How Word Counter Works

The tool analyzes your input text and calculates common writing metrics. You can optionally strip HTML tags (helpful when you paste from a webpage or CMS) and collapse extra whitespace to get more consistent results. The output is generated instantly and stays in plain text so you can reuse it anywhere.

Step-by-Step

• 1) Paste your text: Add any paragraph, article draft, email, or code comments into the input box.
• 2) Choose options: Turn on “Strip HTML” if your text includes tags, and enable “Collapse spaces” to normalize repeated whitespace.
• 3) Select reading speed: Pick a words‑per‑minute value to estimate how long the text takes to read.
• 4) Generate results: Click Generate to compute totals for words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, lines, and reading time.
• 5) Copy or download: Use one click to copy the summary or download it as a .txt file for your workflow.

Key Features

Accurate word and character totals

The counter measures total words and character length with and without spaces, so you can match requirements for platforms that impose strict limits. This is useful for tweet drafts, meta descriptions, ad copy, and SMS messages.

Sentence, paragraph, and line detection

Beyond simple word totals, the tool estimates sentence count, paragraph count, and line count to help you evaluate readability and formatting. These signals are helpful when you want to keep writing concise or ensure a piece is structured for scanning.

Reading time estimation

Reading time is computed from your word count and a selectable words‑per‑minute setting. You can align the estimate with your audience: faster for technical readers, slower for general audiences, or a middle value for blog posts.

HTML stripping for clean text

When text is copied from websites, Google Docs, or editors, it may contain markup. Stripping HTML ensures your counts reflect the readable content rather than tags, attributes, or embedded elements.

Plain-text output designed for reuse

The results are presented as a compact plain-text report. You can paste it into a content brief, a writing checklist, a QA document, or a client email without extra formatting.

Use Cases

• SEO and content briefs: Validate article length targets, estimate reading time, and keep sections within editorial guidelines.
• Academic writing: Confirm essay word limits, check paragraph structure, and spot overly long sentences before submission.
• Social media posts: Stay within character limits and quickly compare shorter versus longer versions of the same post.
• Email and outreach: Keep messages concise, estimate reading effort, and improve clarity by reducing sentence length.
• Product descriptions: Standardize copy length across a catalog and ensure descriptions fit marketplace requirements.
• Editing and proofreading: Use sentence and paragraph counts to identify blocks of text that may need splitting or reformatting.
• Writing practice: Track progress over time by copying the report into your notes after each draft.

Whether you write for the web, school, clients, or internal documentation, a reliable word and character counter helps you meet constraints without guesswork and makes content planning more predictable.

Optimization Tips

Strip HTML when pasting from editors

If you copy content from a CMS, a website, or rich text editors, enable HTML stripping to avoid inflated counts from tags. This produces a result closer to what a reader sees and helps you compare drafts consistently.

Use reading time as a pacing signal

Reading time helps you balance depth and attention. For landing pages, you may aim for shorter times; for guides, longer times can be fine if the structure stays skimmable. Adjust the words‑per‑minute setting to match your audience and use it as a quick sanity check.

Watch “characters without spaces” for strict limits

Some systems and APIs count characters differently. If your publishing target is strict, compare both character totals and keep a buffer. When in doubt, shorten long phrases, remove redundant words, and break up sentences.

FAQ