Character counter
Count characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, lines and spaces as you type.
How to use
Type or paste text and the counts update as you type: characters with and without spaces, words, sentences, paragraphs, lines and spaces. Nothing is sent anywhere, so it is safe for a draft you have not published.
Characters are counted the way a reader sees them, not the way a program stores them. A waving hand emoji is two UTF-16 code units (what JavaScript’s length counts) and one character; the man-woman-girl family emoji is eight code units and still one character; an accented letter typed as a letter plus a separate accent is also one character. “Characters without spaces” leaves out spaces, tabs and line breaks. The spaces count includes ordinary spaces only.
Words, sentences and characters are found with your browser’s text rules for the page’s language. Words joined by an apostrophe, such as don't and l'homme, count as one word, numbers count as words, and hyphenated compounds such as well-known count as two, which is one reason this count can differ slightly from a word processor’s. Languages written without spaces, such as Chinese or Japanese, are split into words using the browser’s dictionary.
A paragraph is a block of text separated from the next by at least one empty line; a line ends at every line break, including the last line even when it is empty. Sentences end at full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, ellipses and line breaks, so a heading or list item counts as a sentence, and abbreviations such as Dr. before a capital letter can add an extra one.
Platforms count differently. An SMS holds 160 characters from the basic GSM alphabet (some, such as € and [, count as two), but only 70 as soon as it contains a character outside it, such as an emoji or letters like á or ã. Many social networks count some characters double or give every link a fixed length, so check the platform’s own counter before relying on a limit.
Example
Hello world!12 characters, 11 without the space, 2 words, 1 sentence.👋One character. JavaScript’s own length says two.👨👩👧One character, from eight UTF-16 code units.well-known, don't2 + 1 = 3 words: the hyphen splits the first, the apostrophe does not split the second.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my post limit disagree with this count?
Different platforms count different things. Some count the units a string is stored in, some count characters as you see them, and some give links a fixed cost regardless of length. This tool counts what a reader would count.
What counts as a word?
A run of letters or digits between separators, using the browser’s own rules for the language. Apostrophes inside a word keep it together; hyphens split it. Punctuation and emoji on their own are not words.
Why is the sentence count too high?
Full stops after abbreviations or initials, as in Dr. Smith, can look like the end of a sentence. The count is a guide for length, not a grammar check.
Is my text stored?
No. It is counted in your browser and disappears when you close or reload the page.