Word counter
Counts as you type. Includes the thing most counters leave out — a count with citations and quotations excluded, which is what most word limits actually mean.
Counting without citations
Most university word limits are stated as "excluding references and citations", and most word counters cannot do it — so students either count by hand or guess. This one strips them before counting.
In-text citations removes anything in the common citation shapes:
- Author-date in brackets —
(Smith, 2019),(Smith & Jones, 2019, p. 4) - Numeric references in square brackets —
[4],[12–14] - Superscript-style numerals in brackets —
(4)where the content is only digits
Quoted passages removes text inside double quotation marks, including the curly quotation marks that word processors insert automatically. It leaves single quotes alone, because apostrophes would break it.
How each figure is counted
| Figure | Rule used |
|---|---|
| Words | Runs of non-whitespace separated by whitespace |
| Characters | Every character including spaces and line breaks |
| Sentences | Runs ending in . ! or ? followed by a space or the end |
| Paragraphs | Blocks separated by one or more blank lines |
| Reading time | Words ÷ 238 per minute |
The reading speed of 238 words per minute comes from Brysbaert's 2019 review in the Journal of Memory and Language, which pooled 190 studies and 18,573 participants. It found 238 wpm for English non-fiction and 260 for fiction — both lower than the 300 wpm figure repeated for decades, which came from small samples of university students who read faster than the general population. Individual speed varies widely, so treat any reading time as a rough guide rather than a measurement.
Hyphenated words count as one — well-known is a single word, which is what Word and Google Docs do too. An em dash with spaces around it does not join words.
Why counts differ between tools
Word counts disagree more often than people expect, and it is nearly always one of these:
- Numbers and symbols. Some counters skip standalone digits or currency symbols. This one counts them, because a marker reading your page sees them.
- Hyphens and slashes. Whether
and/oris one word or two. - Footnote text. Word includes it only if you ask; a paste into a text box usually loses it entirely.
- Headings and captions. Present in a pasted document, often excluded by the limit.
If your figure here is within a few words of Microsoft Word, both are fine. If it differs by a lot, check whether you pasted footnotes or a reference list along with the body.
Common questions
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything on this page runs in your browser and nothing is transmitted. You can disconnect from the internet and the counter still works — which is the honest test.
Can I count a PDF or Word file?
Not directly. Open the file, select all, copy and paste into the box. Copying from a PDF sometimes brings in line-break characters mid-word, so check the total looks sensible.
What counts as a sentence?
Anything ending in a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. That means abbreviations like e.g. and Dr. can inflate the sentence count slightly. No counter gets this perfectly right without understanding the text.