About counter-word

What this is

counter-word is a collection of text measurement tools: word counts, character counts, readability scores, page estimates and platform limit checkers. They share one analysis engine and differ in which measure they put first and what detail they show alongside it.

There is no account, no paywall and no usage limit.

How the counting works

Everything runs in JavaScript in your browser. When you type, the text is analysed on your device and the numbers update. Nothing is transmitted, which is why the tools keep working if you go offline after the page has loaded.

Words are counted as unbroken runs of letters and digits, with hyphens and apostrophes kept inside the word: the same convention Microsoft Word and Google Docs use. Sentences are detected at terminating punctuation with common abbreviations excluded. Syllables use the standard vowel-group method with corrections for silent endings. Readability uses the published Flesch and Flesch–Kincaid formulas.

Where the numbers come from

• Reading speed, 238 words per minute. From Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis of reading rate studies, for silent reading of English non-fiction.
• Speaking speed, 140 words per minute. The middle of the range normally cited for conversational and presentation delivery.
• Words per page, 250 double-spaced and 500 single-spaced. 12pt Times New Roman, one-inch margins: the long-standing academic default.
• Platform character limits. Taken from each platform's published documentation. These change; if you find one out of date, please say so.

Getting in touch

Corrections are welcome, particularly on platform character limits, which change without notice. Write to contact@counter-word.com, or see the contact page for what is most useful to send.

Accuracy

Word and character counts are exact. Sentence counts are accurate to within a percent or two on ordinary prose and less reliable on text dense with abbreviations, decimals or URLs. Syllable counts are estimates, since English pronunciation cannot be fully derived from spelling. Page counts are estimates by nature: the same text in a different font fills a different number of pages.