Why is my word count different from Microsoft Word?
Because the two tools count different things. Word counters disagree about hyphenated terms, contractions, numbers, URLs, headings and footnotes, and almost none of them tell you which rules they use.
Open the Count Rules tab to see all sixteen rules in force and change any of them. Your totals update the moment you do.
Does a hyphenated word count as one word or two?
By default we count “well-known” as one word, which is what Microsoft Word and most universities do.
If your style guide says otherwise, turn off “Count hyphenated terms as one word” in Count Rules and the total updates instantly. Contractions such as “don’t” work the same way.
How many pages is 500 words?
Roughly one page single spaced, or two pages double spaced, in 12pt Times New Roman with one inch margins.
A 1,000 word essay is about two pages single spaced, and 2,000 words is about four. Paste your text above for the exact word count rather than an estimate.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About four to five minutes at an average adult reading speed of 225 words per minute.
Read aloud it is closer to eight minutes, because speaking runs nearer 130 words per minute. Both speeds are adjustable in the tool settings, so you can match your own pace or your audience.
What is the character limit for social media posts?
X posts allow 280 characters, an Instagram caption 2,200, an Instagram bio 150, a LinkedIn post 3,000, and a meta description is best kept under 160.
Paste your draft above and watch the character count as you trim it, with and without spaces.
Is my text uploaded to your server?
No. The analysis runs in JavaScript on your own device. Nothing you type is sent to our server, written to our database, or passed to any third party or AI service.
That is also why it keeps working when you paste a very large document, and why it works offline.
Can I count words in a Google Doc or a PDF?
Yes. Copy the text and paste it above. Google Docs draws your document onto a canvas rather than into the page, so no browser tool can read it directly, and copying is the reliable way.
Our free Chrome extension adds a “Count copied text” button for exactly this.
How do you decide what counts as a sentence?
A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. Common abbreviations such as Dr. and e.g., decimal numbers like 3.14, and web addresses are all recognised, so they never split a sentence in the wrong place. That is a frequent source of inflated sentence counts elsewhere.
Does it count words in languages other than English?
Yes. The tokenizer is Unicode aware, so accented Latin text, Cyrillic, Greek and similar scripts count correctly.
Languages written without spaces between words, such as Chinese and Japanese, are the exception and will not count accurately.
Can I exclude a reference list from the word count?
Yes, and this matters for assignments where the bibliography is excluded from the limit.
Turn off “Count reference section” in Count Rules and any trailing References, Bibliography or Works Cited section is left out. For an exact figure, select just the section you want counted.
Is there a limit on how much text I can paste?
There is no fixed limit. Documents of fifty thousand words and more are analyzed in the background so typing stays responsive. Because nothing is uploaded, there is no file size cap and no waiting for a server.
Can I save my word counts and come back to them?
If accounts are enabled here you can create a free one and save an analysis to your history, which is useful for comparing drafts.
Only the statistics are stored unless you explicitly tick the box to keep the text as well.