Word Counter: Words, Characters and Reading Time

Counting words in a text: counting rules and reading time

The counter treats any run of characters separated by spaces or line breaks as one word, so “don’t” and “well-known” each count as one. Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, rounded up to the next minute: a 450-word text shows 3 minutes.

Counting rules

• Words: the text, trimmed of leading and trailing spaces, is split at every run of spaces, tabs or line breaks. Words with apostrophes or hyphens, numbers and isolated symbols (a dash between two spaces) each count as one word.
• Characters: every character typed, spaces and line breaks included; a second figure excludes them.
• Sentences: number of segments separated by a full stop, exclamation mark or question mark, except before a digit (“...” counts as a single break); a segment with no letter or digit, such as a trailing space or a closing quote, does not count.
• Paragraphs: blocks separated by one or more line breaks.
• Reading time = words / 200, rounded up to the next minute.

Example

“The tree is tall.” then, on a new line, “That is, very tall!”: 8 words, 2 sentences, 2 paragraphs, 1 minute of reading. A 450-word article gives 450 / 200 = 2.25, shown as 3 minutes.

Limits

200 words per minute is a rounded benchmark; reading speed varies with the reader and the difficulty of the text, and reading aloud is slower. Sentence splitting is basic: a decimal number such as 3.14 does not split a sentence and a space left after the final full stop adds nothing, but an abbreviation (“Mr. Smith”, “etc.”) or an address such as “example.com” counts as the end of a sentence. Punctuation set apart by spaces, such as the French spaced colon or semicolon, counts as a word. The text stays in your browser; keyword density analysis is not offered at the moment.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is reading time calculated?

Word count divided by 200, rounded up to the next minute. A 1,000-word text gives 5 minutes, a 1,050-word text 6 minutes.

Does a hyphenated word count as one word or two?

As one: the counter only splits at spaces and line breaks. “Well-known”, “don’t” and “e-mail” each count as one word, whereas some word processors split them differently.

Are spaces included in the character count?

The tool shows both figures: with spaces and line breaks, and without. “The tree is tall.” has 17 characters, 14 of them not spaces.

Why does the sentence count look wrong?

The tool splits at every full stop, exclamation mark or question mark, except before a digit, and ignores segments with no letter or digit. “Pi is about 3.14.” counts as 1 sentence and a space after the last full stop changes nothing, but an abbreviation such as “Mr. Smith” adds a break.

Is this tool really free?

Yes, all tools on Kristools are 100% free and accessible without registration.

Is my data protected?

Yes. All processing is performed directly and securely inside your browser. No personal data is sent to our servers.