What Is a Word Counter?
A word counter is a free online tool that instantly counts the number of words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in any text. Simply type or paste your content into the editor above, and every metric updates in real time — no button click needed.
Whether you're writing a blog post, a school essay, a social media caption, or a YouTube video description, knowing your exact word and character count helps you stay within platform limits and optimize your content for search engines.
Writers & Bloggers
Track word count for articles, essays, and blog posts. Most platforms have minimum word requirements for good SEO.
Social Media
Stay within Twitter's 280-character limit and craft perfect Instagram captions or LinkedIn posts.
SEO Professionals
Check meta title and description length, analyze keyword density, and optimize content for Google search rankings.
YouTube Creators
Make sure your video titles stay under 100 characters and descriptions under 5,000 to maximize visibility.
Students
Meet exact word count requirements for assignments, research papers, personal statements, and exam answers.
Instant & Free
No sign-up, no download, no limits. Works on any device — desktop, tablet, or mobile — completely free.
Platform Character & Word Limits
Different platforms have different content limits. Our Content Limits Tracker shows exactly how close you are to each limit with a live progress bar that turns red when you go over.
| Platform / Field | Character Limit | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube Title | 100 characters | Longer titles get cut off in search results |
| YouTube Description | 5,000 characters | Only the first 157 chars show without clicking "more" |
| X / Twitter Post | 280 characters | Hard platform limit — posts over 280 are rejected |
| SEO Meta Title | 60 characters | Google truncates titles longer than ~60 characters in search |
| SEO Meta Description | 160 characters | Google shows up to ~160 characters in search snippets |
| Instagram Caption | 2,200 characters | Only first 125 characters show without tapping "more" |
| LinkedIn Post | 3,000 characters | Posts over 210 characters get truncated to a preview |
| Facebook Post | 63,206 characters | Shorter posts (under 80 characters) get larger fonts |
How Reading Time Is Calculated
Our tool estimates reading time based on the average adult silent reading speed of 200 words per minute (WPM). Speaking time uses 130 WPM, which is the typical pace for public speakers and podcasters.
For example, a 1,000-word article takes approximately 5 minutes to read and about 7–8 minutes to speak aloud. These estimates are great for planning YouTube video scripts, podcast content, or presentations.
What Is Keyword Density?
Keyword density is the percentage of times a specific word or phrase appears in your text relative to the total word count. Our Keyword Density panel automatically shows your top keywords as you type, with options to view single words (x1), two-word phrases (x2), or three-word phrases (x3).
Ideal Keyword Density for SEO
- 1–2% is the generally accepted sweet spot for primary keywords.
- Below 0.5% — the term may not appear prominent enough to signal relevance to Google.
- Above 3–4% — risks being flagged as keyword stuffing, which can hurt rankings.
- LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords and related terms help Google understand context without over-repeating a single phrase.