Online word counter: words, characters and lines
Paste or type your text and instantly see its length. The tool counts words, visible characters, non-whitespace characters and lines. It runs locally in your browser, making it convenient for essays, short descriptions, applications and draft website copy.
What is the difference between words and characters?
A word is usually recognised as a sequence of letters or numbers, including some punctuation within a word. A character count also includes punctuation and spaces. For example, Hello world! contains two words but has twelve characters when counting the space and exclamation mark.
Does an emoji count as one character?
Some emoji contain multiple Unicode code points. Where the browser supports Unicode grapheme segmentation, the counter can treat a visible combined emoji as one character. Other apps may count the same sequence differently, so always check the target platform's requirements.
Word count for writing and SEO
Use the count to check a draft against a word limit or to review the length of a page description. A specific number of words is not a ranking guarantee, and search engines can generate their own snippets rather than copying a site's meta description exactly.
Frequently asked questions
Is my text uploaded or sent to an AI service?
No. The counter performs calculations within the browser. It does not send your text to a remote text-processing service.
Does it count spaces?
Yes. The tool reports both total characters and characters excluding whitespace so you can compare requirements.
Will the count match Microsoft Word or social platforms?
Not in every case. Different products have their own rules for hyphens, punctuation, emoji and Unicode combinations.