How the counts are worked out
A word is any run of characters separated by whitespace. Hyphenated compounds like "well-known" count as one word, which matches how Microsoft Word and Google Docs behave. Numbers count as words.
A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by whitespace or the end of the text. Abbreviations such as "e.g." can cause slight over-counting — no automatic method avoids this entirely without a dictionary.
A paragraph is a block of text separated by one or more blank lines.
Common word and character limits
| Where | Limit | Counts |
|---|---|---|
| X / Twitter post | 280 | characters |
| SMS (single message) | 160 | characters |
| Meta title tag | ~60 | characters |
| Meta description | ~155 | characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | characters |
| UCAS personal statement | 4,000 | characters |
| Common App essay | 650 | words |
| Typical blog post | 1,500–2,500 | words |
| Academic abstract | 150–300 | words |
Reading and speaking time
Reading time uses your chosen words-per-minute rate. The default of 238 wpm comes from a 2019 meta-analysis of reading-rate studies, which found an average of 238 wpm for silent reading of non-fiction English prose and 260 wpm for fiction.
Speaking time is calculated at 130 wpm, a common rate for clear presentation delivery. Conversational speech runs faster, around 150 wpm, while audiobook narration is deliberately slower at 150 to 160 wpm.
| Words | Reading time | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 1 min | 2 min |
| 500 | 2 min | 4 min |
| 1,000 | 4 min | 8 min |
| 2,000 | 8 min | 15 min |
| 5,000 | 21 min | 38 min |
| 10,000 | 42 min | 77 min |
Frequently asked questions
Does the word count match Microsoft Word?
In almost all cases, yes. Both split on whitespace and treat hyphenated compounds as single words. Small differences can appear with unusual punctuation, footnote markers or text inside tables.
Is my text stored anywhere?
No. Counting happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is transmitted, logged or saved. You can verify this by disconnecting from the internet — the counter keeps working.
How are characters with and without spaces different?
The "characters" figure counts everything including spaces, tabs and line breaks. "No spaces" excludes all whitespace.
Most platform limits — X, SMS, meta tags — count characters including spaces, so use the first figure unless told otherwise.
How many pages is my word count?
For a standard double-spaced page in 12pt Times New Roman with one-inch margins, roughly 250 words per page. Single-spaced, roughly 500.
So 1,000 words is about 4 double-spaced pages or 2 single-spaced ones.
Why does the sentence count sometimes look wrong?
Abbreviations containing full stops — "Dr.", "e.g.", "U.S." — can be read as sentence endings. Detecting these reliably needs a dictionary of exceptions.
If exact sentence counts matter, use the figure as a close approximation rather than a precise total.