Counting words, the right way
Whether you’re trimming an essay to a word limit, writing a meta description that won’t get cut off in search results, or keeping a post under a platform’s character cap, the numbers matter. This counter updates live as you type and breaks your text into four useful metrics: words, characters, sentences and estimated reading time.
Reading time
Based on ~200 words per minute, the average adult silent reading speed. For a speech, divide by ~140 instead.
Characters
Toggle spaces on or off — useful for strict limits like titles, meta descriptions and social posts.
Sentences
Counted by terminal punctuation (. ! ?), with the final unpunctuated line included.
Handy length targets
| Where | Aim for | Measured in |
|---|---|---|
| Google title tag | 50–60 | characters |
| Meta description | 150–160 | characters |
| X / Twitter post | up to 280 | characters |
| SEO blog post | 1,500–2,500 | words |
| Academic essay | 500–1,000 | words |
Your draft stays yours. All analysis happens in this browser tab — no keystrokes are logged and
no text is uploaded.