Frequently asked questions

A word is a sequence of letters and digits — including accented characters (é, ü, ñ), hyphenated and apostrophe compounds like “mother-in-law” or “don’t”. Standalone punctuation marks do not count as words.

A sentence ends with a period, exclamation mark, question mark or ellipsis. Common abbreviations like “e.g.”, “etc.” or “Dr.” do not end a sentence — unlike in many other counters.

No. All calculations run entirely in your browser. Your text never leaves your device — there is no server upload and no storage. Only your draft is saved locally in your browser so you can continue after a reload.

We assume an average of 200 words per minute for silent reading — a common benchmark. For presentations and speeches we additionally show the speaking time at about 120 words per minute.

Many platforms cap text length: X (Twitter) allows 280 characters, an SMS 160, and a meta description should stay at about 155 characters. Just pick a limit — the progress bar shows you live how much you have left.

Yes — for example “250 words” for an essay or a summary. Enter your goal and the progress bar shows how far you’ve come and how many words are still missing.

Several programs count words: Microsoft Word shows the word count in the status bar, Google Docs under “Tools → Word count”. Even easier is our free word counter on this page — it runs directly in your browser, with no installation and no sign-up, and shows characters, sentences and reading time alongside the word count in real time.

The quickest way is online: paste your text into the field above — the word count appears instantly, no click needed. Alternatively, Word counts words under “Review → Word Count” (shortcut Ctrl + Shift + G) and Google Docs under “Tools → Word count” (Ctrl + Shift + C).

As a rule of thumb, an A4 page in standard formatting (12 point, 1.5 line spacing) holds about 350 words — so 20,000 words come to roughly 55 to 60 A4 pages. With single spacing and a slightly tighter font, about 500 words fit on a page, which works out to only about 40 pages. The exact number depends on font, font size, line spacing and margins.

Yes — the character counter on this page is completely free, with no sign-up and no limits. It counts characters with and without spaces in real time, directly in your browser; your text is never uploaded or stored. Word (“Review → Word Count”) and Google Docs (“Tools → Word count”) also show the character count free of charge.

There are many apps for word and letter puzzles: popular ones include “4 Pics 1 Word”, word-search and crossword apps, and digital versions of Scrabble for Android and iOS. You’ll find hundreds of games in the app stores under search terms like “word puzzles”, “word search” or “crossword”. A tip for puzzle fans: with the word counter above you can quickly check how many words and letters your solution ideas contain.

For counting objects, so-called tally counter apps like “Tally Counter” or “Click Counter” for Android and iOS work well: every tap on the screen increases the count, and many apps manage several counters side by side and save intermediate results. If you need to record groups of people, store displays or repetitions, they are faster than pen and paper.

Depending on word length, 500 words come to about 3,000 to 3,500 characters with spaces — on average, a word is around six letters long, plus the space. Without spaces, that’s roughly 2,500 to 3,000 characters. If you want to know exactly: paste your text above and you’ll see both values instantly.

Counting letters is easiest with an online counter: paste your text into the field above and the characters with and without spaces are displayed instantly. Every letter, digit and punctuation mark counts as one character — umlauts and accented letters included. If you only want the pure letters without spaces and punctuation, use the “characters without spaces” figure as an approximation.

You get the answer in a second: paste your text into the field above — the word count appears instantly and updates live with every keystroke. Every sequence of letters and digits counts as a word; umlauts and hyphen or apostrophe compounds count as one word. Alongside the word count you also see characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time.

Copy your text and paste it into the field above — you immediately see the character count with and without spaces in real time, without signing up and without your text being uploaded. Alternatively, you’ll find the character count in Word under “Review → Word Count” and in Google Docs under “Tools → Word count”. The practical part of the online counter: you can also activate a character limit (e.g. 280 for X) and see live how much is left.

Let your browser do the work: paste the text above, done — the counter determines the letters or characters automatically, recalculated with every keystroke. That’s handy for applications, SMS, meta descriptions or homework with character limits. Because everything runs locally on your device, your text stays private.

An A4 page in Word with default settings (Calibri, 11 point, single spacing, 2.5 cm margins) holds about 3,000 to 3,500 characters with spaces — that’s roughly 450 to 500 words. With 1.5 line spacing, it’s about 1,800 to 2,200 characters per page. The exact number depends on font, font size, line spacing, margins and paragraph formatting.