myWord Counter
Paste or type your text. Word, character, sentence, and paragraph counts update instantly.
About the Word Counter
Whether you are writing a university essay with a strict word limit, crafting a social media post with a character limit, or editing a document for clarity, knowing your exact word and character count is essential. Our word counter gives you all the key statistics in real time.
What is counted
- Words — total number of space-separated tokens
- Characters — every character including spaces and punctuation
- Characters (no spaces) — useful for SMS and social media limits
- Sentences — blocks ending in a full stop, exclamation, or question mark
- Paragraphs — sections separated by blank lines
- Reading time — estimated at 200 words per minute
Common word count targets
- Tweet / X post: 280 characters
- LinkedIn post: 3,000 characters recommended
- Blog post: 1,000–2,500 words for SEO
- University essay: typically 1,500–3,000 words
- Short story: 1,000–7,500 words
- Novel: 70,000–100,000 words
Reading level and readability scores
Beyond word count, readability scores measure how easy text is to read. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level estimates the US school grade needed to understand the text. Hemingway Editor targets a Grade 5-8 score for general audiences. Most content for the web should target Grade 8 or below. Long sentences and complex vocabulary raise the grade level; short sentences and common words lower it.
- Flesch Reading Ease — 0-100 scale; 60-70 is "standard", 70+ is easy; aim for 60+ for general audiences
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade — equivalent US school grade; Grade 8 is accessible to most adults
- Gunning Fog Index — estimates years of education needed; 12 is accessible, 17+ is academic
- Sentence length — the single biggest driver of readability; aim for an average of 15-20 words per sentence