Free Word Counter
Paste or type your text below for an instant word count. Alongside the total you'll see unique words, keyword frequency, estimated reading and speaking time, readability grade, and estimated page length — all updating live as you type.
Top Words
The most frequently used words in your text (words under 2 characters are excluded).
Paste some text above to see your top words.
Why Word Count Matters
Whether you are a student racing against an essay limit, a blogger aiming for the SEO sweet spot, or an author tracking daily output, word count is one of the most fundamental metrics in writing. It tells you not only how long a piece is, but how much thought and content you have committed to the page.
Academic writing
Assignments at school and university almost always specify a word count range. Going significantly under shows insufficient engagement with the topic; going over suggests poor editing. Most institutions define the acceptable range as ±10% of the stated target — so a 2,500-word essay means landing between 2,250 and 2,750 words. Submitting significantly outside this range can affect your grade regardless of content quality.
SEO and blogging
Search engines reward depth and comprehensiveness. Long-form articles (1,500–3,000 words) consistently outrank shorter pieces for competitive keywords because they tend to cover a topic more thoroughly. However, word count alone does not rank pages — relevance, structure, and user experience matter just as much. A focused 800-word post that directly answers a question will outperform a meandering 3,000-word post every time.
Fiction and creative writing
Literary agents and publishers have firm expectations by genre. A literary novel typically runs 80,000–100,000 words; a thriller, 70,000–90,000; commercial romance, 50,000–100,000. Submitting a 40,000-word manuscript labelled as a "novel" signals unfamiliarity with industry norms. Tracking daily output — even just 500 words a day — compounds into a complete first draft in under six months.
Social media and communications
Platforms impose hard character limits that translate into strict word limits. X (formerly Twitter) caps posts at 280 characters (roughly 40–50 words). LinkedIn status updates are capped at 3,000 characters. Email subject lines should stay under 60 characters — about 8–10 words — to display fully on mobile screens. Knowing your word count lets you tailor content for each platform before you paste and submit.
Word Count Targets by Document Type
Use this reference to check whether your text is the right length for its intended format.
| Document Type | Typical Word Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tweet / X post | ≤ 47 words | 280-character hard limit |
| SMS text message | ≤ 30 words | 160-character GSM encoding limit |
| Email subject line | 6–10 words | ~60 chars for full display on mobile |
| Social media caption | 15–75 words | Varies by platform; see Character Counter |
| Press release | 400–600 words | 1–2 pages; inverted pyramid structure |
| Blog post (short) | 500–1,000 words | Quick reads, news-style updates |
| Blog post (standard) | 1,200–2,500 words | Good SEO depth for most topics |
| Long-form / pillar content | 2,500–5,000 words | Comprehensive guides and evergreen pages |
| Short story | 1,000–7,500 words | Flash fiction to full short story |
| Novelette | 7,500–17,500 words | Between short story and novella |
| Novella | 17,500–40,000 words | e.g. Of Mice and Men (~30k) |
| Novel | 70,000–100,000 words | Standard publisher expectation |
| Academic essay | Per assignment | Aim for ±10% of stated target |