Word Counter — Words, Characters, Sentences & Reading Time
Count words, characters, sentences and reading time, and check X, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, SEO and SMS limits as you type.
X counts weighted length (links 23, emoji and CJK 2); the rest are counted in visible characters. Limits checked October 2026; platforms change them, so leave a margin.
Density is the share of all words taken by the phrase. There is no magic number; 0.5 to 2 percent is what naturally written pages tend to land on. For a full analysis (every phrase in a sortable table, keyword positions and highlights, CSV export) use the keyword density checker.
| free | 4 · 7.1% |
| tool | 3 · 5.4% |
| tools | 2 · 3.6% |
| bring | 1 · 1.8% |
| right | 1 · 1.8% |
| visitors | 1 · 1.8% |
| answers | 1 · 1.8% |
| one | 1 · 1.8% |
| question | 1 · 1.8% |
| well | 1 · 1.8% |
| free tools | 2 · 7.1% |
| free tool | 2 · 7.1% |
No repeated phrases.
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This free word counter shows words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time as you type or paste, and adds what plain counters leave out: keyword density for a phrase you choose, and the one-, two- and three-word phrases you use most. A platform panel shows the same text against the limits of X, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, title and meta description lengths, and how many SMS segments it takes. It is built for writers checking a brief, students meeting a limit, social media managers, and anyone editing a page for search.
Word counts are simple; the useful question is what the words are doing. A page that repeats its keyword in 4 percent of its words reads as stuffed to both readers and search engines, and one that never uses it in the opening paragraph is hiding its subject. The density panel answers both without pretending there is a magic number, because there is not.
How to use
- Paste or type your text. Every count updates live.
- Enter a target keyword or phrase to see how many times it appears, its density, and whether it is in the first 100 words.
- Scan the most-used phrases. Repeated two- and three-word phrases are usually either your topic (good) or filler (cut).
- Check the platform limits panel: each bar turns amber near the limit and red past it, and a marker shows where the feed truncates with “see more”.
- Turn the stop-word filter off if you want to see function words counted too.
- Use reading time to set expectations in an article header, and speaking time to size a talk or a video script.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?
Words divided by 225 words per minute, an average adult silent-reading speed for non-technical text, and the same figure used across this site's blog. Dense technical material reads slower (150 to 200 wpm); light copy faster. Speaking time uses 150 wpm, the pace of a clear presentation.
What is a good keyword density?
There is no target that helps rankings. Naturally written pages about a topic land between roughly 0.5 and 2 percent for their main phrase, and above 3 percent starts to read as stuffing. Modern search engines evaluate topical coverage, related terms and usefulness, not repetition. Use density as a sanity check, not a goal.
Is my text uploaded?
No. Counting happens in your browser with JavaScript; nothing is sent to a server or stored. You can paste confidential drafts safely.
What counts as a sentence and a paragraph?
Sentences end at a period, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space or the end of the text; abbreviations like “e.g.” can cause a small over-count. Paragraphs are separated by a blank line.
Why does X say my post is longer than the character count?
X counts weighted length, not characters. Every link counts as 23 whatever its real length, each emoji counts as 2, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters count as 2 each, so a 140-character post in Japanese uses the whole 280. The X row in the platform panel uses those rules; the Characters figure above it does not.
How many characters fit in one SMS?
160 if every character is in the GSM-7 alphabet (basic Latin letters, digits, common punctuation and some accented letters). A single emoji, curly quote or character outside that set switches the whole message to UCS-2, where one message holds 70. Long messages are split into parts of 153 (GSM-7) or 67 (UCS-2) characters, each billed as one SMS. The SMS line shows the encoding, the segment count, and which characters forced UCS-2.
Typical lengths, for reference
• X post: 280 (25,000 with Premium) · Threads: 500 · Bluesky: 300 · LinkedIn post: 3,000, with about the first 200 shown before “see more” · Instagram caption: 2,200, about 125 shown · TikTok caption: 4,000 in the app · YouTube title: 100 · YouTube description: 5,000
• SEO title: 50–60 characters · Meta description: 120–160 characters · SMS: 160 (GSM-7) or 70 (UCS-2) per message
• Blog post that ranks for a competitive term: 1,500–2,500 words, though the best answer wins, not the longest
• Product description: 50–150 words · Email: under 200 words for a cold email
• Five-minute talk: about 700 words · Ten-minute video script: about 1,400 words
Using phrase frequency while editing
The three-word phrase list is the quickest way to find verbal tics: “in order to”, “it is important”, “at the end of the day”. If a phrase appears five times in 800 words and is not your subject, cut most of them. The one-word list shows whether your topic words dominate or whether the text is mostly hedges and connectors.
Related free tools
- Keyword Density Checker — Count one-, two- and three-word phrases, see their density, and check where your target keyword appears.
- Readability Checker — Score your text with Flesch, Flesch–Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG and more, and see the long sentences and hard words to fix.
- Case Converter — Switch text between twelve cases in one click, from UPPER and Sentence case to camelCase, snake_case and kebab-case.
- Text Cleaner — Remove line breaks, extra spaces, duplicates and invisible characters, sort lines, and find and replace, in one pass.
- SERP Snippet Preview — Preview how your page title and meta description will look in Google — with live character-count checks.