Free Online Word Counter — Real-Time Results

Count Words Online in Real Time

Counting words by hand is slow and easy to get wrong. Live Word Counter lets you count words online automatically as you type, so the numbers are always up to date. Alongside the total word count you'll see characters with spaces and characters without spaces — exactly what you need when a form, headline, or meta description has a strict character limit. As a real-time word count checker, it's perfect for any task where every word and character matters.

More Than a Word Count — 12 Writing Metrics

A great word counter tells you more than how many words you've written. Live Word Counter breaks your text down into twelve metrics: words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, and lines, plus the number of unique words, your average word length, and even the longest word in your text. These insights help you spot repetition, tighten loose sentences, and understand the shape of your writing at a glance.

Reading Time and Speaking Time Estimates

Need to know how long your content takes to read or present? Our built-in reading time calculator estimates reading speed at around 200 words per minute and speaking time at about 130 words per minute, then shows both in minutes and seconds. It's ideal for writers planning blog posts, teachers preparing lessons, and anyone scripting a speech, podcast, or video who needs to hit a specific runtime.

Keyword Density for SEO Writing

For bloggers and content marketers, knowing which words you use most is essential. Live Word Counter's keyword density table shows your top ten most-used words with their counts and percentages, while filtering out common stop words like "the" and "and" so only the meaningful terms rise to the top. Use it to check that your target keywords appear often enough for SEO — without stuffing your text and hurting readability.

Readability Made Simple

Clear writing reaches more readers. Live Word Counter calculates the Flesch Reading Ease score for your text and labels it from Very Easy to Very Confusing, with a color cue so you can tell at a glance whether your writing is accessible. Shorter sentences and simpler words raise the score; long, complex sentences lower it. It's a quick, reliable way to keep your content easy to understand.

Check Social Media Character Limits

Every platform has its own limit, and going over means your post gets cut off. Live Word Counter tracks your character count live against the limits for Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube titles and descriptions. Each platform shows a progress bar that turns amber as you approach the limit and red when you exceed it, so you can craft a platform-perfect post the first time.

Private by Design — Nothing Is Stored

Your writing is yours. Live Word Counter runs entirely in your browser, which means the text you enter is never uploaded, logged, or stored on any server. Once the page has loaded, the word counter even works offline. It's a fast, private, and completely free word counter you can trust with drafts, sensitive documents, and everything in between — no account required.

How to Count Words in Word, Google Docs, and Online

Wondering how to count words in different places? Here's how to check word count wherever you write:

• How to count words in Word: The word count shows in the status bar at the bottom of the window. To see more, click that count or go to the Review tab and select Word Count for words, characters, paragraphs, and lines.
• How to count words in Google Docs: Open the Tools menu and choose Word count (or press Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows, Cmd+Shift+C on Mac). Tick "Display word count while typing" to keep a live counter on screen.
• How to count words online: The fastest way is to paste your text into Live Word Counter above. It counts how many words you have instantly — no software, no menus, and it works on any device with a browser.