Word count & reading time

What this tool checks

A word counter tallies the words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading and speaking time in any block of text as you type. Length is a practical SEO and GEO lever: search snippets, meta descriptions, and social cards all truncate at fixed character limits, and AI answer engines lift self-contained passages that sit inside a predictable word band — so knowing your exact counts lets you write to the length that gets shown and quoted.

What it looks at

Word count

The number of words in the text; it governs whether a page meets the depth a topic needs and whether a passage stays inside the roughly 40-60 word band AI engines prefer to quote.

Character count

The total characters with and without spaces; this is the hard limit that decides what fits in a title tag (~60 chars), a meta description (~155 chars), or a social card before it truncates.

Sentence count

How many sentences the text contains; it is a proxy for readability, since shorter sentences are easier for both readers and language models to parse and lift verbatim.

Paragraph count

The number of paragraphs; short, single-idea paragraphs are far more likely to be extracted as a standalone answer passage by a search snippet or AI overview.

Reading time

An estimate in minutes based on an average silent-reading speed of ~200-250 words per minute; it sets reader expectation and is a common on-page UX signal.

Speaking time

An estimate in minutes at a spoken pace of ~130-150 words per minute; useful for scripts, voice-overs, and pacing video captions.

How to use it

1. Paste or type your text into the counter — it tallies words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and reading time live, entirely in your browser.
2. Check the count against your target — the character limit for a title or meta description, a minimum word depth, or the ~40-60 word band for an AI-quotable passage.
3. Trim or expand the text until it fits, watching the live totals update as you edit.

Frequently asked questions