Word Counter

How do I count words in a document?

1. Paste or type your text into the Input box.
2. Watch the counts update live: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs.
3. Click Count words if you want to refresh the totals after a large paste.
4. Check the reading time (200 words per minute) and speaking time (130 words per minute).
5. Click Copy output to copy the summary, or keep editing until you hit your target.

The word counter counts whitespace-separated words, so a hyphenated word such as "well-known" counts as one, which matches how Microsoft Word and Google Docs count ordinary text. Characters are shown both with and without spaces, sentences are split on full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, and paragraphs are separated by blank lines. If you paste a 2,000-word essay and the count differs from Word by a handful, the difference is almost always stray punctuation or line breaks, not a counting error.

The UK numbers people check most often are built in. A UCAS personal statement is limited to 4,000 characters or 47 lines, whichever comes first, so watch the character figure rather than the word count. Typical undergraduate essays run to 1,500 to 3,000 words and most universities allow a margin of 10% either way, but check your module handbook because some penalise anything over the stated limit. Cover letters read best at 250 to 400 words.

Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, the average for an adult reading silently on screen, so a 1,000-word blog post shows as five minutes. Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, the pace of a clear presentation, which is handy for timing a best man's speech, a wedding reading or a ten-minute conference slot (about 1,300 words).

Everything runs as plain JavaScript in your browser tab. The text you paste is never transmitted or stored anywhere, so it is safe to check confidential reports, dissertations and client documents. Output refreshes a moment after you stop typing, and very long documents of 100,000 words or more still count in well under a second on an ordinary laptop.

How it works: this tool uses plain JavaScript running in your browser tab. No server is involved, so Kilnfile never sees your file. Last reviewed 20 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions