Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and reading time, with Chinese and English counted the way each language actually works.
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About this tool
Count what is in your text and how long it will take to read. Mixed Chinese and English is the case most counters get wrong: splitting on spaces turns a whole paragraph of Chinese into a single "word". Here Latin words are counted by whitespace and Chinese characters are counted one by one, then added together, which is the number people actually mean. Character counts go by Unicode code point, so an emoji is one character and not two.
How to use it
- 1Paste or type your text into the box.
- 2Read the counts, the reading and speaking times, and the keyword density.
- 3Check the platform limits to see whether your text fits a tweet, a meta description, a title tag or an SMS.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my character count differ from my word processor?
Word processors often count characters in a way that depends on their own encoding, and some count spaces while others do not. This tool reports both figures separately: characters including spaces and characters excluding them. If it still disagrees, check whether your editor is counting newlines and whether it uses CRLF, which is two characters per line break.
How is reading time calculated?
At 200 words per minute for Latin text and 300 characters per minute for Chinese, Japanese and Korean, then added together. Using one rate for mixed text distorts the estimate badly, because a Chinese sentence carries far more meaning per character than an English one does per word.
What is the Flesch score and why is it sometimes missing?
The Flesch reading ease formula measures how easy a Latin-alphabet text is to read, from roughly 0 to 100. It is based on sentence length and syllable counts, and syllables do not exist in Chinese or Japanese, so applying it to CJK text produces a meaningless number. The score therefore only appears when Latin words make up the large majority of your text.