Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimate reading time. Real-time stats as you type. Includes keyword density analysis.
| # | Word | Count | Density | Bar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type some text to see keyword analysis... | ||||
Every number on this page updates live as you type, calculated using straightforward text-processing rules applied directly in your browser. Word count splits the text on whitespace and counts the resulting chunks. Character counts are measured both with and without spaces, since different platforms and style guides specify limits using either convention. Sentences are detected by counting sequences of text ending in a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Paragraphs are counted as blocks of text separated by a blank line. None of this requires a server round-trip — it all happens instantly using plain JavaScript string processing.
Reading time is calculated using an average adult silent reading speed of around 225 words per minute, a commonly cited figure in readability research. Speaking time uses a slower rate of about 130 words per minute, reflecting typical conversational speaking pace rather than reading pace — useful for estimating how long a script, speech, or video voiceover will actually take to deliver aloud. Both are estimates rather than precise measurements, since actual reading and speaking speed varies by individual, content complexity, and familiarity with the subject matter, but they provide a solid practical benchmark for planning content length.
Keyword density measures how often a specific word appears relative to the total word count of a piece of text, expressed as a percentage. This tool automatically filters out common stop words — like "the," "and," "of" — so the keyword table reflects the words that actually carry meaning in your content, rather than being dominated by grammatically necessary but low-information words. In SEO writing, keyword density has historically been used as a rough check against both under-optimization (a target keyword barely appearing) and over-optimization, commonly called keyword stuffing, where a term is repeated unnaturally often in an attempt to manipulate search rankings. Modern search engines rely on far more sophisticated signals than density alone, but it remains a useful sanity check that a piece of content stays naturally focused on its intended topic.
Many types of writing have a target length, whether set by a platform's constraints, an assignment's requirements, or general best practice for a content format. Setting a specific word count goal and watching the progress bar fill in as you write gives immediate feedback on how close you are, without needing to run a manual count repeatedly. This is useful for essays with a required length, blog posts targeting a specific word range for SEO purposes, or any writing task where hitting a length target — not too short, not too long — actually matters to the outcome.
All text analysis happens locally in your browser as you type — nothing is uploaded to a server, logged, or stored anywhere. This makes the tool safe to use for drafts, private writing, or confidential content, since the text never leaves your own device at any point.
Words like "well-being," "mother-in-law," or "state-of-the-art" are counted as single words rather than being split at each hyphen, following the same convention used by most word processors and style guides. This matters for anyone tracking word count against a strict limit, since treating a hyphenated compound as multiple separate words would inflate the count compared to how most tools and institutions actually define a "word." If your specific use case requires counting hyphenated segments separately, you can manually adjust for that, but the standard convention — and the one this tool follows — treats a hyphenated compound as one unit.
Writers use this tool to check draft length against an editor's brief, students use it to confirm an essay meets a minimum or maximum word requirement before submitting, and content teams use the keyword density table as a quick sanity check that a page stays on-topic without a term being repeated unnaturally often. Because every stat updates live, none of these checks require stopping to run a separate word processor's count feature.
Most word processors only show a basic word and character count, without sentence structure, paragraph breakdown, reading time, or keyword density in one place. Pasting text into this tool surfaces all of those stats together instantly, which saves switching between a word processor's count dialog and a separate SEO or readability tool.