About Word Count Tools

Word Count Tools is a small set of free writing tools: counters for words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and syllables, converters for letter case and title capitalization, a readability checker, and calculators that turn a word count into pages, speaking time or reading time. Every tool works the moment you paste text, with no account and no upload.

The tools

• Word Counter: Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time as you type.
• Character Counter: Characters with and without spaces, plus X, Instagram and SMS limits.
• Sentences per Paragraph: Paragraph length guidelines and a counter for sentences and words per paragraph.
• Case Converter: Switch text to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Sentence case, Title Case or aLtErNaTiNg.
• Syllable Counter: Syllables per word and per line, with a haiku 5-7-5 check.
• Sentence Counter: Sentences, paragraphs, words per sentence and your longest sentences.
• Words to Pages: How many pages a word count fills by font, size and spacing, and back.
• Title Capitalization: Title case in APA, AP, Chicago or MLA style, with the words left lowercase.
• Readability Checker: Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for any text.
• Speech Time Calculator: How long a speech or script takes to say at slow, average or fast pace.
• Reading Time Calculator: Estimated reading time from text or a word count at your own speed.

How we count

Every page uses the same counting rules, so the numbers agree from tool to tool:

• Words are groups of letters or digits separated by spaces, line breaks or an em dash. Hyphenated words and contractions are one word; punctuation and emoji alone are not words. Chinese and Japanese characters count one word each.
• Characters are what you see on screen, so an emoji with a skin tone or a flag is one character. Spaces and line breaks are included in the total and left out of the “no spaces” count.
• Sentences end with a period, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis followed by a space, except after titles and abbreviations such as Dr. or e.g. A line without end punctuation is one sentence.
• Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by line breaks; empty lines are ignored.
• Syllables are estimated with spelling rules (vowel groups, silent endings and common exceptions), so unusual words can be one syllable off.

Where the numbers come from

Wherever a tool relies on a standard or a research figure, the page names its source. The main ones are:

• Reading speed (238 wpm non-fiction, 260 wpm fiction, 183 wpm aloud): Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047
• Speaking rate (130–190 wpm, with 160 as the midpoint): Reynolds, M. E., & Givens, J. (2001). Presentation rate in comprehension of natural and synthesized speech. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 92(3), 958–968
• Flesch Reading Ease: Flesch, R. (1948). A new readability yardstick. Journal of Applied Psychology, 32(3), 221–233; Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: Kincaid, J. P., Fishburne, R. P., Rogers, R. L., & Chissom, B. S. (1975). Derivation of new readability formulas for Navy enlisted personnel (Research Branch Report 8-75)
• X post length: X Developer Platform: Counting characters; Instagram captions: Meta for Developers: Instagram Graph API, IG User Media (caption); SMS: 3GPP TS 23.038: Alphabets and language-specific information and 3GPP TS 23.040: Technical realization of the Short Message Service
• Title capitalization: APA Style: Title case capitalization, Chicago Manual of Style Online: Q&A, Capitalization, Titles, MLA Style Center: Capitalization of titles and the AP Stylebook: composition titles entry
• Paragraph and sentence length: Digital.gov Plain Language Guide: Clear and short and GOV.UK: Writing to GOV.UK standards, use clear language

Some figures have no official standard, such as words per page. In those cases the page says it is an assumption and shows exactly what is assumed: for example, 500 words per single-spaced page of 12 pt Times New Roman, scaled for other fonts by their measured character widths. The syllable rules are adapted from Lingua::EN::Syllable.

Your text stays private

All counting and converting happens in your browser with JavaScript. The text you type or paste is never sent to our server or to anyone else. The counters remember your latest draft in your browser’s local storage so it is still there after a reload; the Clear button deletes it, and so does clearing this site’s data in your browser. Ads are served by Google AdSense, as described in the privacy policy.

Contact

Found a word counted the wrong way, or a source that has changed? Write to contact.devinventory@gmail.com.