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Word Counter

Real-time statistics for characters, words, sentences, lines and paragraphs with estimated reading time. Everything runs locally in your browser.

Word counts are a hard requirement for submissions, assignments, contracts and platform limits, and the rules differ: payment and essays usually count words, platform limits often count characters including punctuation and spaces, and layout work cares about paragraphs and lines. Paste the text and every count is listed at once, so the right column can be matched to the requirement.

When the numbers disagree with a word processor it is nearly always a difference of definition: "words" handle mixed-script text differently from "characters excluding spaces", and headers, footers, footnotes and tables may or may not be included. A CJK character counts as one word here, which is the usual convention for such text. Establish which figure the other party wants before comparing.

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How to use

  1. Paste or type the text; the counts update as you type.
  2. Read the total characters, the non-whitespace characters and the word count.
  3. Check the sentence, line and paragraph counts.
  4. Compare with the platform's own figure, making sure both measure the same thing.

How it works

What "words" means here

Counting basis: Chinese characters count individually (你好世界 = 4), English counts by words (hello world = 2), and "reading words" = Chinese characters + English words — the basis for freelance rates and essay scoring.

How characters are counted

Characters count by Unicode code points: total characters include spaces, newlines and punctuation; non-whitespace characters exclude all blanks (full-width spaces included). Each emoji counts as 1 character by code point.

Paragraphs, sentences and reading time

Paragraphs split on consecutive blank lines; sentences split on sentence-ending punctuation in both languages (。！？ .!?). Reading time assumes 300 words per minute; speech assumes 180.

Code example

JavaScript Counting the usual way 

const countText = (s) => {
  const cn = (s.match(/[\u4e00-\u9fa5]/g) || []).length;  // CJK counts by character
  const en = (s.match(/[A-Za-z]+/g) || []).length;         // Latin counts by word
  const chars = [...s].length;                             // including punctuation and spaces
  const charsNoSpace = [...s.replace(/\s/g, '')].length;
  const lines = s.split(/\r?\n/).filter((x) => x.trim()).length;
  const sentences = (s.match(/[.!?]+/g) || []).length;     // sentence terminators
  return { cn, en, words: cn + en, chars, charsNoSpace, lines, sentences };
};

console.log(countText('Hello world.'));

Shell Batch counting documents on the command line 

# Per-file counts of CJK characters, total characters and lines
for f in docs/*.md; do
  cn=$(grep -oE '[\u4e00-\u9fa5]' "$f" | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
  ch=$(wc -m < "$f" | tr -d ' ')
  ln=$(wc -l < "$f" | tr -d ' ')
  printf "%-28s CJK %6s  chars %6s  lines %5s\n" "$(basename "$f")" "$cn" "$ch" "$ln"
done

FAQ

"Words" vs. "characters" — what's the difference?

Words means Chinese characters plus English words (Chinese by character, English by word) — the basis for essays, rates and papers. Characters count every letter, mark and space — the basis for platform limits like microblogs and SMS. Submit by words; check platform limits by characters.

Is my text uploaded?

No. All counting happens in your browser with JavaScript; nothing is sent anywhere, and it works offline — safe for pasting papers, contracts and other private text.

How is reading time estimated?

Reading words ÷ speed: silent reading runs about 250–350 Chinese characters per minute (this tool takes 300); speech runs about 160–200 (taken as 180). Results are indicative only.

How long should essays and papers be?

Common requirements: primary-school essays 300–500 characters, middle-school exams around 600, college-entrance essays at least 800; undergraduate term papers typically 3,000–5,000, journal abstracts 200–300. Always defer to the submission's stated basis.

Why does my count differ from Word's?

Usually a definitional gap: Word's "words" and "characters" differ algorithmically, and whether text boxes, footers or headers are counted matters. Watch both indicators here and defer to the platform's or teacher's stated basis.

How should mixed Chinese-English text be counted?

Chinese by characters, English by words, then summed — the standard for rates and essays. Digits and punctuation are usually excluded from "words" but included in "characters". Watch both metrics for mixed text to avoid misjudging from one number.

Do spaces, newlines and punctuation count as words?

Normally not in "words", but always in "characters". This tool shows both total characters and non-whitespace characters: use characters for strict platform limits (microblogs, SMS, bios) and words for submissions and rates.