About This Word Counter Tool
Our free word counter is used by writers, students, bloggers, content marketers and social media managers who need to track text length accurately. Unlike Microsoft Word, our tool counts in real time and shows you multiple metrics simultaneously — all in your browser with no data sent to any server.
Word Count for Popular Platforms
| Platform / Format | Recommended Length | Limit |
|---|
| Twitter / X post | 71–100 characters | 280 characters |
| Instagram caption | 138–150 characters | 2,200 characters |
| LinkedIn post | 1,900–2,000 characters | 3,000 characters |
| Facebook post | 40–80 characters | 63,206 characters |
| Blog post (SEO) | 1,500–2,500 words | No limit |
| University essay | As specified | ±10% tolerance typical |
| Meta description | 150–160 characters | 160 characters |
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this word counter work? +
The word counter splits your text by whitespace to count words, counts every character including spaces for characters, detects sentence endings (. ! ?) for sentence count, and uses blank lines to identify paragraphs. All processing happens in your browser — no text is sent to any server.
Is there a word limit for university essays in the UK? +
Most UK universities specify a word count for essays and allow a ±10% tolerance. For example, a 2,000-word essay allows between 1,800 and 2,200 words. Always check your specific institution's rules. References, footnotes and appendices are typically excluded from the word count.
Does word count include punctuation? +
Word count does not include punctuation — it counts space-separated tokens. Character count does include punctuation. The "characters without spaces" count excludes all whitespace characters including spaces, tabs and line breaks.
How is reading time calculated? +
Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute, which is the average adult silent reading speed for general content. Academic or technical content may be read more slowly. The estimate is rounded up to the nearest minute.