(Ignoring Spaces): 0
Unigrams
Bigrams
Trigrams
Fourgrams
How Does Our Word Character Counter Work?
We use a bit of Javascript to look at the text you paste in the text area and calculate each of the following:
- Number of Paragraphs: This is calculated by checking the number of line break characters.
- Number of Sentences: We add up the number of line breaks as well as standard end-of-sentence punctuation: periods, exclamation points, and question marks. Note: this does mean that we may over-estimate if your text uses these characters in other ways, such as periods inside of abbreviations, such as S.E.O. or F.B.I.
- Number of Words: We add up the number of alphanumeric words separated by spaces, line breaks, or other punctuation.
- Number of Characters: This is the number of characters that you paste, but we subtract spaces.
- Number of Characters With Spaces: This is the raw character count of your entire text.
- N-Grams: We calculate all n-grams (unigrams, bigrams, trigrams, and fourgrams specifically) that occur more than once in your content.
What Can You Use Our Word Counter For?
We use it to check word count on all types of content - blog posts & articles, social media copy for Twitter and Facebook, Instagram captions, Google Adwords copy, and tons of other projects.
Do You Store My Text Or Other Data?
No - we do not store any content that you paste into the counter. All counting is done by your web browser, so no data needs to be sent to our servers.
We use normal web analytics tools like Google Analytics to track visitors and site interactions, but we do not store the text that you are counting for analytics or any other purposes.
Word Count Guidelines by Content Type
Blog Posts & Articles
- Short blog post: 300-600 words (quick tips, news updates)
- Standard blog post: 700-1,200 words (how-tos, listicles)
- Long-form content: 1,500-2,500 words (comprehensive guides, SEO-focused)
- Pillar content: 3,000-5,000+ words (ultimate guides, definitive resources)
Social Media
- Twitter/X: 280 characters max (71-100 characters optimal for engagement)
- Facebook: 40-80 characters (short posts get more engagement)
- LinkedIn: 1,300-2,000 characters for articles; 150-200 for posts
- Instagram: 2,200 characters max caption; 125-150 characters optimal
Email Marketing
- Subject line: 40-50 characters (mobile optimization)
- Preview text: 35-55 characters
- Email body: 50-125 words (short), 200-500 words (newsletter)
SEO & Metadata
- Meta title: 50-60 characters (512 pixels max width)
- Meta description: 150-160 characters (920 pixels max width)
- URL slug: 3-5 words, 50-60 characters max
Academic Writing
- High school essay: 300-1,000 words
- College essay: 1,500-5,000 words
- Research paper: 3,000-10,000 words
- Master's thesis: 15,000-50,000 words
- PhD dissertation: 80,000-100,000 words
How Word Count Affects SEO
Word count is a ranking factor for search engines, but quality matters more than quantity.
Ideal Length for SEO:
- Articles ranking on page 1 of Google average 1,447 words
- Long-form content (2,000+ words) tends to rank higher for competitive keywords
- Comprehensive content signals expertise and value to search engines
Why Longer Content Ranks Better:
- More opportunity to include keywords naturally
- Greater depth and comprehensiveness
- More internal linking opportunities
- Higher time-on-page and engagement metrics
- More backlink potential (people cite thorough resources)
When Shorter Content Works:
- Simple questions with direct answers (featured snippets)
- News and trending topics
- Local business pages
- Product pages (focus on specs and benefits)
Write as long as necessary to comprehensively cover the topic, but no longer. Aim for 1,500-2,500 words for most blog posts and pillar content.
Common Word Counting Questions
Do contractions count as one word or two?
Contractions count as one word. "Don't" = 1 word, not 2. This is the standard convention used by most word counters, including Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
Do hyphenated words count as one or two words?
Hyphenated words are typically counted as one word. "Twenty-one" = 1 word. "State-of-the-art" = 1 word.
Do numbers count as words?
Yes, numbers count as words in most word counters, whether written as digits (123) or spelled out (one hundred twenty-three).
How accurate are online word counters?
Online word counters are generally very accurate for standard text. Minor discrepancies can occur with special characters, formatted text, or unusual spacing, but the difference is typically negligible.
Tips for Meeting Word Count Requirements
If You Need to Add Words:
- Add Examples: Illustrate concepts with real-world examples and case studies
- Include Data: Cite statistics, research, and expert quotes
- Expand Explanations: Break down complex ideas into more detailed steps
- Add Subheadings: Create new sections to explore related subtopics
- Include Lists: Transform paragraphs into bulleted or numbered lists
- Add Definitions: Define technical terms and industry jargon
If You Need to Cut Words:
- Remove Redundancy: Eliminate repeated ideas and unnecessary phrases
- Cut Filler Words: Remove "very," "really," "just," "actually," etc.
- Use Active Voice: "We analyzed" instead of "An analysis was conducted by us"
- Combine Sentences: Merge related short sentences
- Delete Tangents: Remove off-topic sections
- Simplify Language: Replace wordy phrases ("due to the fact that" → "because")
Word Counter for Different Languages
Our word counter works with multiple languages, though counting conventions vary by language:
Latin-Script Languages (English, Spanish, French, German):
- Words separated by spaces
- Standard counting rules apply
- Accented characters count normally (é, ñ, ü)
Asian Languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean):
- Chinese: Characters may not have spaces; word counting requires special parsing
- Japanese: Mix of kanji, hiragana, and katakana complicates word boundaries
- Korean: Hangul characters form syllable blocks; spacing indicates words
Right-to-Left Languages (Arabic, Hebrew):
- Counting works the same as left-to-right languages
- Words separated by spaces
- Special characters and diacritics handled correctly
For languages without clear word boundaries (like Chinese), character count is often more meaningful than word count.
How Can I Support This Free Tool?
Well - would you mind linking to this page from your website? It helps our small company earn more traffic and links to improve our SEO.
Here's a bit of text you can drop into your page:
Check out Content Harmony's Word Counter
