Word counter

Why a word counter needs to not upload anything

Think about what actually gets pasted into these: an assignment before it is submitted, an article before it is published, a client's copy under an NDA, a cover letter. A great many counters send that to a server to count it, which is both unnecessary and the kind of thing nobody reads the privacy policy to find out.

Counting words is arithmetic a browser can do in a fraction of a millisecond. There is no reason for the text to leave your machine, so here it does not — this page makes no network request carrying it, and what you type is kept only in your own browser's storage so it survives a refresh.

Urdu and Arabic script

Most counters split sentences on a full stop, an exclamation mark and a question mark. Urdu uses ۔ to end a sentence and ؟ to ask a question, so a whole Urdu article reports as one sentence — and the reading time built on it is nonsense.

Both are handled here, and the Arabic comma ، is correctly not treated as a sentence end. Characters are counted by code point rather than by JavaScript's string length, so an emoji or a rare character counts as one instead of two.

On reading time

Reading time uses 225 words a minute, a common figure for silent reading of ordinary prose. Speaking time uses 140, nearer a comfortable pace for reading aloud — useful if you are timing a presentation. Both are estimates; dense technical material reads slower and an audience you are pausing for is slower still.

How many pages is that?

The question everyone actually arrives with, and the honest answer is that it depends on the settings — which is exactly why tutors and editors specify a word count instead of a page count. For the standard assignment setup (12pt Times New Roman, one-inch margins) the usual figures are about 250 words a page double-spaced and 500 single-spaced:

• 500 words — 2 pages double-spaced, 1 single.
• 1,000 words — 4 pages double-spaced, 2 single.
• 1,500 words — 6 pages double-spaced, 3 single.
• 2,000 words — 8 pages double-spaced, 4 single.
• 5,000 words — 20 pages double-spaced, 10 single.

Switch to Arial and the count drops; go to 1.5 spacing and it lands between the two columns. If a brief gives you a page count and nothing else, ask which font and spacing they mean — the same essay can be six pages or three.

Timing a talk

Speaking runs far slower than reading, and the gap is where presentations go wrong. A comfortable pace for reading aloud is 130 to 150 words a minute; audiobook narration sits near 150, and a conference talk with pauses for slides is slower still.

• 1 minute — about 140 words.
• 3 minutes — about 400.
• 5 minutes — about 700.
• 10 minutes — about 1,400.
• 20 minutes — about 2,800, which is the usual conference slot.

Write to the short end of whatever you are given. Nerves speed people up in rehearsal and slow them down on the day, and of the two failure modes, finishing early is the forgivable one.

Character limits worth knowing

Several things count characters rather than words, which is why that figure sits beside the word count here rather than being hidden:

• Search result title — cut around 60 characters.
• Meta description — cut around 155.
• A post on X — 280 on a free account.
• SMS — 160 characters in one message, but only 70 once the text contains a non-Latin character or most emoji, because the whole message switches encoding. An Urdu SMS hits that limit fast.

Questions

How many pages is 1,000 words?

About four pages double-spaced or two pages single-spaced, in 12pt Times New Roman with one-inch margins — the standard assignment setup. Double-spaced pages run near 250 words and single-spaced near 500, so 1,000 words is 4 pages or 2. Change the font or the spacing and the page count moves, which is why word count and not page count is what gets specified.

How many words is a five-minute speech?

Roughly 650 to 750 words at a comfortable speaking pace of 130 to 150 words a minute — about 700 at the 140 this counter uses for speaking time. Write to the lower end: nerves speed most people up, and a speech that runs long is a worse problem than one that runs short.

How many characters is a tweet or a meta description?

A post on X is 280 characters on a free account. A search engine meta description is cut around 155 characters and a title around 60. All three count characters rather than words, which is why the character figure sits next to the word count here.

How is reading time worked out?

Reading time uses 225 words a minute, which is a common figure for silent reading of ordinary prose. Speaking time uses 140, which is nearer a comfortable pace for reading aloud. Both are estimates and the right number depends on your material and your audience.

What counts as a word?

Anything separated by whitespace. A hyphenated word counts as one, which is the usual convention.

Does it work with Urdu?

Yes, and more carefully than most. Urdu ends sentences with ۔ and asks questions with ؟, which a counter looking only for a full stop misses entirely — so it reports one enormous sentence. The Arabic comma ، is correctly not treated as a sentence end. Characters are counted by code point, so emoji and rare characters count as one rather than two.

Why is the keyword list missing common words?

Short and very common words are filtered out, or the list would be "the, and, of" every time. It is there to show whether a piece is actually about what you think it is about.

Is my text uploaded?

No — and this is worth checking on any counter you use, because many post what you paste to a server. People paste unpublished articles, assignments and client copy into these. This one counts in your browser and makes no network request with your text in it.

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