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Word Counter

Free online tool to count words, characters with spaces, and characters without spaces in your text.

Word/character counter

How it works

Counts words, characters with spaces, and characters without spaces

Word definition

Words are separated by whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines)

A word and character counter is a practical tool that allows you to quickly count the number of words and characters in any text. It's useful for writers, students, content creators, and anyone who needs to meet specific word or character limits.

Easily count words and characters using our free online counter by simply pasting or typing your text. The tool will provide you with accurate counts for words, characters with spaces, and characters without spaces.

Table of contents

What is a word/character counter?

A word and character counter is a tool that analyzes text to provide accurate counts of:

  • Word count: The number of words in your text
  • Character count (with spaces): Total characters including spaces, punctuation, and formatting
  • Character count (without spaces): Characters excluding spaces and formatting

This tool is essential for:

  • Academic writing: Meeting essay word limits
  • Content creation: Ensuring articles meet publishing requirements
  • Social media: Staying within character limits
  • Professional writing: Meeting client specifications
  • Translation work: Comparing text lengths across languages

How to use the word/character counter

The word and character counter is simple to use and provides instant results.

Steps to use:

  1. Enter your text: Type or paste your text into the text area
  2. Get instant results: View word count and character counts immediately
  3. Real-time updates: Counts update as you type or edit

The tool will display:

  • Word count: Number of words separated by spaces
  • Characters (with spaces): Total character count including spaces
  • Characters (without spaces): Character count excluding spaces

Understanding word count

Word count is calculated by:

  • Splitting text by whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines)
  • Filtering out empty strings
  • Counting the remaining word segments

Example: "Hello world!" contains 2 words:

  • "Hello" (1 word)
  • "world!" (1 word)

Understanding character count

Character count includes:

  • With spaces: All characters including spaces, punctuation, and formatting
  • Without spaces: All characters excluding spaces and formatting

Example: "Hello world!" (12 characters with spaces, 10 without spaces)

Common use cases

Academic writing

  • Essays: Meeting word count requirements
  • Research papers: Ensuring proper length
  • Theses: Tracking progress toward word goals
  • Assignments: Following instructor guidelines

Content creation

  • Blog posts: Meeting publishing requirements
  • Articles: Ensuring appropriate length
  • Social media: Staying within platform limits
  • Marketing copy: Meeting client specifications

Professional writing

  • Reports: Meeting page or word limits
  • Proposals: Following submission guidelines
  • Documentation: Ensuring completeness
  • Technical writing: Meeting style guide requirements

Character limits by platform

Social media

  • Twitter: 280 characters
  • Instagram: 2,200 characters per caption
  • Facebook: 63,206 characters per post
  • LinkedIn: 3,000 characters per post

Academic platforms

  • Abstracts: Typically 150-300 words
  • Research papers: Varies by journal
  • Conference submissions: Specific limits per event

Content platforms

  • Medium: No strict limit
  • WordPress: Varies by theme
  • Newsletters: Platform-specific limits

Tips for accurate counting

For word count

  • Consistent spacing: Use single spaces between words
  • Punctuation: Counts as part of the word it's attached to
  • Numbers: Counted as words
  • Hyphenated words: Usually counted as one word

For character count

  • Spaces: Included in "with spaces" count
  • Punctuation: Always included
  • Formatting: May or may not be included depending on context
  • Special characters: Always included

Limitations and considerations

Word count limitations

  • Language differences: Word boundaries vary by language
  • Technical terms: May be counted differently
  • Abbreviations: May be counted as separate words
  • Compound words: Counting may vary by language

Character count considerations

  • Encoding: Different character encodings may affect counts
  • Special characters: Unicode characters count as one character
  • Emojis: May count as multiple characters
  • Formatting: Hidden characters may affect counts

When to use word vs character count

Use word count when:

  • Academic writing: Essays, papers, assignments
  • Content creation: Articles, blog posts
  • Professional writing: Reports, proposals
  • Creative writing: Stories, novels

Use character count when:

  • Social media: Twitter, Instagram captions
  • Technical writing: Code comments, documentation
  • Translation: Comparing text lengths
  • SEO: Meta descriptions, titles

Best practices

For writers

  • Regular checking: Monitor counts as you write
  • Planning: Know your target counts before starting
  • Editing: Use counts to guide revision
  • Formatting: Consider how formatting affects counts

For content creators

  • Platform awareness: Know your platform's limits
  • Audience consideration: Consider reading time vs. count
  • SEO optimization: Balance count with keyword density
  • Engagement: Consider how count affects engagement