2026-10-03
A word counter looks like the simplest tool there is, until two of them give you different numbers for the same text. This post covers what iLoveDevTools's Word Counter counts and how, where the numbers can legitimately differ from other tools, and when an editor's built-in count is the better choice.
Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and lines update as you type, with no button to press. It also estimates reading time (238 words per minute) and speaking time (130 words per minute), and lists your top keywords so you can see which words you lean on. Turn on "Ignore common English words" to hide the, and and of from that list.
There is no single standard for a word. This tool treats a run of letters or digits as a word and keeps hyphens and apostrophes between letters inside it, so well-known and don't are one word each. Other tools split on hyphens, count a standalone symbol as a word, or treat a URL as a single word. For a normal essay the totals usually land within a few words of each other. If a form, a publisher or a grader enforces a limit, trust the count in that system for the final check and use this one while you draft.
Characters are counted the way a reader sees them, so a thumbs-up emoji with a skin tone is one character, not four. Code that calls string length gets UTF-16 code units, and byte limits are different again, so a limit measured in code or in bytes can be reached sooner than the character count suggests. Chinese, Japanese and Thai are written without spaces between words, so for those scripts the tool uses your browser's built-in word segmentation instead of looking for spaces.
A sentence ends at a period, exclamation mark, question mark or ellipsis followed by whitespace, and at a line break. Decimals such as 3.14 are not split. Abbreviations like "e.g." followed by a space can be counted as a break, which is the usual limit of rule-based sentence counting.
Your editor or word processor. Word, Google Docs and most code editors show a live count, and for a document you are already writing that is the most convenient option, especially since it can count only the selected passage. This tool is for text that lives elsewhere: an email draft, a form field, a chat message or something copied from a PDF. Its extras are the keyword list, the speaking time and a count that works on pasted plain text.
Online word counter websites. They do the same basic job. The difference that matters for private text is where the counting happens. Here it runs in your browser tab with built-in JavaScript, so a draft, a contract clause or a customer email is never sent anywhere. If you use any online counter for sensitive text, check that it does not upload it.
For a quick, private count of pasted text with reading time and repeated-word detection, try the Word Counter. For counting inside a document you are already editing, use the editor's own count. To tidy the text afterwards, the Case Converter and List Utilities cover common clean-up jobs.