Word & Character Counter
Paste or type your text — word count, character count, sentences, paragraphs and reading time update live. No signup, works offline.
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Top words
Start typing to see word frequency.
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Online Word Counter — Fast, Accurate & Private
FastWordCount is an online word counter and character counter that updates in real time as you type or paste. Whether you're writing a blog post, an essay, a tweet, a meta description or a novel chapter — knowing your exact word count and character count helps you hit your target every time.
Everything runs in your browser. Your text is never uploaded to any server, never logged, and never stored anywhere other than your own device.
What FastWordCount measures
- Word count — total words, updated live as you type
- Character count — total characters including spaces
- Character count without spaces — useful for platform limits and translation estimates
- Sentence count — number of sentences detected in your text
- Paragraph count — number of paragraphs separated by blank lines
- Reading time — estimated minutes to read at average adult reading speed (238 wpm)
- Word frequency — top words ranked by how often they appear, with a visual density bar
- Character density — ratio of non-space characters to total characters
Who uses a word counter?
- Students & academics — hit essay word limits, track dissertation chapters, stay within abstract maximums
- SEO writers & bloggers — aim for 1,500–2,500 words for top-ranking blog posts, check keyword frequency
- Social media managers — stay within Twitter/X (280 chars), Instagram captions, LinkedIn posts
- Copywriters — keep Google Ads headlines under 30 chars, meta descriptions under 160 chars
- Authors & novelists — track chapter length, monitor daily writing progress
- Translators — estimate project size and cost by word or character count
- Developers — check string length for database fields, UI labels, API limits
Character limits for common platforms
- Google meta description — 160 characters
- Google page title — 60 characters
- Twitter / X post — 280 characters
- Instagram caption — 2,200 characters
- LinkedIn post — 3,000 characters
- Facebook post — 63,206 characters
- Google Ads headline — 30 characters
- Google Ads description — 90 characters
- YouTube title — 100 characters
- YouTube description — 5,000 characters
- SMS text message — 160 characters
Word count targets for SEO content
Search engines favour content that thoroughly covers a topic. Research consistently shows that top-ranking pages for competitive informational queries average between 1,500 and 2,500 words. FastWordCount helps you track your word count as you write so you can hit your target before publishing — without counting manually or switching apps.
- Short blog post — 500–800 words
- Standard blog post — 1,000–1,500 words
- Long-form SEO article — 1,500–2,500 words
- Pillar / cornerstone content — 3,000–5,000 words
- Product page — 300–500 words
- Landing page — 500–1,000 words
Frequently asked questions
Paste or type your text into the box above. FastWordCount updates your word count instantly as you type — no signup required, no character limits.
FastWordCount shows both: total characters including spaces in the "Characters" card, and total characters excluding spaces in the "No spaces" card. Both update live.
Most top-ranking blog posts for competitive keywords contain between 1,500 and 2,500 words. Pillar content and comprehensive guides often reach 3,000–5,000 words. Use FastWordCount to track your word count as you write and hit your target before publishing.
Google displays meta descriptions up to approximately 160 characters before truncating them in search results. Page titles get cut off around 60 characters. Use the character counter to keep your snippets within these limits.
No. All counting happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your text is never sent to any server, never logged, and never stored anywhere other than your own device's memory while the page is open.
Reading time is estimated at 238 words per minute, which is the widely-cited average silent reading speed for adults. A 1,000-word article will show approximately 4 minutes of reading time.
Yes. FastWordCount is fully responsive and works on all devices — phones, tablets and desktops. The stats grid adapts to your screen size automatically.
Paste or type your text into the counter above. The character count shown includes spaces by default. A separate count without spaces is shown below it.
Character count with spaces includes every space between words. Character count without spaces counts only letters, numbers, and punctuation. Most social media platforms and form fields count characters with spaces included.
Yes — FastWordCount updates your word and character count instantly as you type or paste text. No need to click a button.
Notion only shows word count when you manually select text — there's no persistent counter. Copy your text from Notion and paste it into FastWordCount for an instant count.
Yes — FastWordCount has no word or character limit. Paste an entire essay, article, or document and it counts everything instantly.
Most teachers and professors do care about word limits — going significantly over suggests you haven't edited properly. A few words (10-20) over is usually fine. FastWordCount helps you stay within limits by showing your count in real time.
A minimum of 300 words means your submission must contain at least 300 words. You can exceed this minimum — it's a floor, not a ceiling. FastWordCount shows your exact word count so you know when you've hit the minimum.