Words
Characters
Sentences
Paragraphs
Characters without spaces
Reading time
Grade level
Free Online Word Counter Tool
QuillBot’s word counter is a free, easy-to-use tool for tracking the word count in your writing. Our online word count tool provides data for words and lets you simply change whether spaces should be counted as characters. It also displays restrictions for social networking platforms with character limits.
What is a word counter?
When you add your text to QuillBot’s Word Counter, our powerful platform instantly performs the mundane task of counting for you, so you can see right where your word limit is sitting for your project.
So, if you don’t know whether compound words count as one or two words, save yourself the searching and let QuillBot be the words calculator.
Trust QuillBot’s expertise to know that hyphenated words only count as one, that accented letters don’t count as two words, and that, usually, spaces do count as a character.
There’s no need to go cross-eyed counting words manually just to make sure you’re hitting your writing benchmarks. Your time is worth more than that—and so is your eyesight.
When to use a word counter?
Online word counting tools have a variety of uses, from helping you check your daily writing goals to meeting assignment requirements to creating viral social media posts.
How to use the word counter?
To use QuillBot’s free online word counter tool, just type or paste in your text, and QuillBot’s word counter will instantly calculate the number of words.
When you’re done working on a section of text, use the trash can icon in the top right corner to clear the window for a clean slate.
If you’ve changed or refined the input text to meet a target word count, you can easily download it or copy the updated text to your clipboard using the icons in the bottom right corner.
Who needs a word counter?
When counting words, the objective is usually to meet a minimum or a ballpark number, with a few exceptions. Below are some use cases where a word counter would be needed:
Students
Often, in school or at a university, students will be asked to write a short response to a question or a longer essay. These can range from 250 words to thousands of words.
Writers
Daily writing goals are important for a serious writer, even at the hobby level. Those looking to make writing a habit or hone their skills often choose to set a daily word count goal, like Neil Gaiman’s 50-words-per-day habit that, slowly but surely, helped him pen Coraline.
Job seekers
When crafting cover letters or completing case studies for job applications, meeting a target word count is sometimes required. For example, an applicant may be asked to write a 1,500-word report on a case study to show their knowledge of the market.
Educators and researchers
Research abstracts are one exception where the word count has a strict maximum that is typically difficult to achieve since abstracts often need to summarize years of research into ~300 words.
How is QuillBot’s word counter different from other word counters online?
QuillBot’s word counter tool will soon become your favorite word count checker for at least one of the following reasons:
See everything you need (and more) at once
The word and character counts are displayed side by side, so whether you’re reviewing one or both for your project, there’s no extra clicking, hovering, or changing tabs to see one count or the other.
Plus, you can also see the word count for optimized Facebook posts (250 characters) and the hard limit for Twitter posts (280 characters) displayed right on the page in the bottom right-hand corner.
There’s no clutter
QuillBot’s word counter has a clean, intuitive, and clutter-free interface. You won’t be bothered by pop-ups or noisy ads, and it’s still free.
We support every writer
We’re more than just a Word Counter. We offer a variety of different AI writing tools to help you with every step of the writing and editing process. Explore more of what we offer below.
Word counter FAQs
What is the Word Counter, and how does it work?
Our Word Counter tool instantly calculates the number of words in a piece of text. To use it, simply paste your text in to the box. Then, Word Counter will tell you the exact number of words. It’s that easy!
Why is it important to use our Word Counter?
Many writing projects have strict length requirements. Examples include essay word limits, target word counts for blog articles, the desired lengths of copywriting projects, and more. Our Word Counter can ensure you meet these requirements. Plus, using the Word Counter can help you be more aware of the length of a piece of writing and determine whether you need to make it longer or shorter.
Can I use the Word Counter for different languages?
Yes—our tool counts the number of words in any text, regardless of language.