Online Word Counter - Count Characters, Words, Lines, Sentences & Paragraphs
Real-time counting of characters, words, lines, sentences and paragraphs for Chinese, English and mixed text
How to use the online word counter
Type or paste text into the box above and the tool instantly counts 6 metrics: characters (every symbol), characters (no spaces), words (Chinese segmented by character, English by space), lines, sentences (split on periods / exclamation marks / question marks), and paragraphs (separated by blank lines). Copy all results with one click for reports or review documents. To compare pre/post-edit differences use the Text Diff tool; for advanced pattern matching combine it with a Regex Tester.
About the word counter
This tool counts text characters, characters (no spaces), words, lines, sentences and paragraphs in real time. It handles mixed Chinese-English: Chinese segments by character (≈1 word per Han character) while English splits on spaces. Everything is computed locally in your browser — no data is uploaded, so it is fast and private. To inspect the underlying encoding of characters, see the Character Encoding Reference; when working with Markdown, pair it with the Markdown Preview tool to check rendering.
Common use cases
Student writing: college-entrance essays usually require 800+ characters and thesis abstracts stay under ~300, so check length in seconds here. Social media: WeChat article titles are capped at 64 characters with 2000–3000 recommended for the body — control length to improve reading experience. Work documents: daily reports and project summaries need controlled length; real-time counting keeps layout efficient. English writing: Word Count is a basic need — this tool splits on spaces automatically. Short text: Weibo's 140-char limit, Xiaohongshu's 1000-char cap, and the 70-char SMS limit are easy to check here.
Word-count references by writing type
College-entrance essays: 800+ characters (high school), 600+ (middle school). Academic abstracts: typically 200–300 characters. WeChat: title ≤64 chars, body 1500–3000 recommended. Weibo: 140-char plain-text limit. Xiaohongshu: 1000-char body cap. SMS: 70 characters per message (Chinese) — longer text is auto-split. English essays: 500–2000 words for undergrad assignments, 150–300 words for graduate abstracts. Product copy: 2–4 characters best for button text, ≤12 for dialog titles, ≤30 for landing-page hero copy.
FAQ
How is Chinese text counted?
Each Chinese character counts as one character and one word; English text is split on spaces and each word counts as one word. For mixed Chinese-English text the tool auto-detects and counts each part separately. To remove duplicate lines, use the Text Deduplicate tool.
Do punctuation marks count as characters?
Punctuation counts toward "characters" but not "words". To get a pure Chinese-character count (no punctuation), subtract non-Han characters from "characters (no spaces)".
How are spaces and line breaks handled?
"Characters" counts everything including spaces and newlines; "characters (no spaces)" removes spaces but keeps other whitespace such as newlines. Lines and paragraphs are counted by newlines and blank lines respectively.
How are Japanese / Korean text counted?
Japanese counted per character (kanji and kana) and then segmented by spaces or particles for word count. Each Hangul syllable block counts as one character. For mixed CJK text this tool correctly recognizes full-width characters and delivers accurate counts.
What is the difference between word count and character count?
Character count tallies every symbol (letters, Han characters, digits, punctuation, spaces) — a raw length measure. Word count segments Chinese (≈1 word per character) and splits English on spaces. The two diverge noticeably in mixed text, so consider several metrics at once.
Is there a text-length limit?
This tool counts entirely in your browser and theoretically handles hundreds of thousands of characters. The practical limit depends on browser performance and device memory — documents of 50,000–100,000 characters are generally smooth. For extremely long text, split it into sections.
Is the counting accurate for mixed Chinese-English text?
Yes. The tool treats Chinese and English differently: Chinese is segmented by character for character/word counts, while English words are identified by space and punctuation boundaries. Digits, symbols, full-width and half-width punctuation in mixed paragraphs are all counted correctly under "characters".