Counts words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, which is what you need when copy has to fit a limit — a meta description, an abstract, an assignment, a field with a hard cap.
There is no single definition of a word, so expect small differences against Word or Google Docs on hyphenated compounds, contractions and numbers with separators. For a hard editorial limit, leave a little margin rather than sitting exactly on the boundary.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?
At 238 words per minute for silent reading and 130 for reading aloud. Those figures come from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies, which is a more defensible basis than the "200 wpm" round number most tools use. Real speed varies a lot with text difficulty, so treat it as an estimate.
How are sentences counted?
By splitting on . ! and ? when followed by whitespace or the end of the text. Requiring the trailing space avoids the obvious false positives — "3.14" and "e.g." are not counted as sentence ends — but abbreviations followed by a space ("Dr. Smith") will still be over-counted. No purely mechanical approach avoids that entirely.
Is my text private?
Yes. Counting happens in your browser as you type; nothing is transmitted or stored. That matters more than it sounds for this particular tool, since word counters are often used on unpublished drafts and confidential documents.