Word & Character Counter

What this does

Limits come in different units. A meta description is measured in characters, a database column in bytes, an essay in words, and a commit message line in characters per line. This counter shows all of them at once and updates as you type.

Byte counts use UTF-8, the encoding almost all web systems store text in. Characters outside the basic Latin range take more than one byte each, which is why a limit measured in bytes can be reached sooner than the character count suggests.

How to use it

1. Type or paste text.
2. Read the counts. Reading time assumes about 220 words per minute, the same rate this site uses for its lessons.

Where it stops being right

• Words are counted by splitting on whitespace. Languages written without spaces between words, such as Chinese or Japanese, are counted differently from how a person would count them.
• Characters are counted as Unicode code points. Some emoji are built from several code points joined together and count as more than one.

Questions

Why is the byte count higher than the character count?

In UTF-8, characters outside basic Latin — accented letters, most non-Latin scripts, emoji — take two to four bytes each.

How is reading time calculated?

The word count divided by 220 words per minute, rounded up. Real reading speed varies a great deal with the reader and the material.

Is my text saved or sent anywhere?

No. It exists only on this page until you close or refresh it.