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Word Counter: Live Words, Reading Time and Top Terms

Paste your text to count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs live, with reading time, speaking time and your most used words. Works in any language, free.

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Reading time
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Counts update live and work in any language. Reading time assumes 200 words per minute and speaking time assumes 130.

Most used words

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A word counter does one job well: it tells you exactly how long a piece of writing is, the moment you type or paste it. This one goes a little further, adding sentences, paragraphs, unique words, average sentence length, reading time and speaking time, plus a list of your most used words. It works in any language and runs entirely in your browser, so nothing you paste ever leaves your device.

Why word count matters

Length is a proxy for depth, and a lot of the writing you do comes with a target. School and university essays specify a word count. Many freelance and content briefs are priced and scoped by the word. SEO articles usually need enough depth to cover a topic fully, and social posts run the other way, capped tight. A live word count keeps you honest against whichever target you are writing to, without switching to another app or counting by hand.

Unique words and average sentence length add a second layer. A low ratio of unique words can signal repetition, and very long average sentences often signal writing that is hard to follow. Watching both while you edit nudges the draft toward something clearer.

Reading time and speaking time

The tool shows two durations because they answer two different questions. Reading time, based on about 200 words per minute for silent reading, estimates how long a visitor will spend on an article, which is handy for the you can read this in four minutes labels that help set expectations. Speaking time, based on about 130 words per minute, estimates how long the same text takes to say aloud, which is what you need for a script, a talk or a video voiceover.

Both are planning estimates rather than guarantees. Skimmers move faster, technical material reads slower, and a lively speaker races while a careful one lingers. Treat the numbers as a solid starting point and adjust to your audience.

Word count and SEO, honestly

There is no magic word count that ranks a page, and padding an article to hit a number is a mistake. What actually matters is covering the searcher's question completely, which longer, well researched pages tend to do simply because there is more to say on a substantial topic. Use the counter to check you have written enough to be genuinely useful, not to chase an arbitrary target, and cut any words that do not earn their place.

If you want to know whether your key pages are long enough and deep enough to outrank the competition, request a free SEO audit and we will compare them against the results already winning your terms.

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FAQ

Word Counter: questions, answered

How does the word counter count words?
It counts blocks of text separated by spaces, the same way Google Docs and Microsoft Word do. That makes it accurate for English and any other language that separates words with spaces, including Spanish, French, German and Korean. Counts update live as you type or paste.
What reading speed does it use?
Reading time is based on about 200 words per minute, a common average for adult silent reading of online content, so a 1,000 word article shows five minutes. Speaking time uses about 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for reading aloud. Both are estimates you can adjust to your audience.
Is my text private?
Yes. Everything runs locally in your browser using JavaScript, and nothing you paste is uploaded or stored anywhere. You can even use the tool offline once the page has loaded, which makes it safe for sensitive or unpublished drafts.
What is the ideal word count for an SEO article?
There is no fixed number. The right length is whatever it takes to answer the searcher's question thoroughly, which for a substantial topic often lands somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Focus on completeness and usefulness rather than hitting a target, and cut anything that does not add value.
How is speaking time different from reading time?
Reading time estimates silent reading at around 200 words per minute, while speaking time estimates reading aloud at around 130 words per minute. Because we speak more slowly than we read, the same text always takes longer to say than to read, which is why the tool reports both.

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