Count words in Word

Microsoft Word shows your document’s word count in two places: right in the status bar at the bottom, and in a detailed dialog under the Review tab. We’ll show you both routes — plus the keyboard shortcut for the quick ones.

Method 1: Status bar (the fastest way)

1. Open your document in Word.
2. Look at the status bar at the bottom left — it always shows something like “Words: 1,234”.
3. Select a passage of text and you’ll see “Words: 87/1,234” — selection and whole document.
4. Missing the display? Right-click the status bar and enable “Word Count”.

Method 2: Review tab (with details)

1. Open the Review tab in the menu bar.
2. Click Word Count (in a German Word version: Überprüfen → Wörter zählen).
3. The dialog shows all values at a glance: pages, words, characters (with and without spaces), paragraphs and lines.
4. Tick “Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes” to count those as well.

The keyboard shortcut

The Word Count dialog opens instantly with Ctrl + Shift + G — handy if you frequently check how far along your text is.

Why does Word sometimes differ from online counters?

Word treats numbers with separators, hyphenated words or symbols somewhat differently than other counters. If you need a count that’s independent of the Word dialog, simply paste your text into the field below — where you can also set a word goal or character limit.