Word and character counter
Paste a draft, choose what counts, and see its length immediately. Compare words, visible characters and UTF-8 bytes, check a limit and keep a counts-only report. Your draft stays in this tab and is not saved or uploaded.
How it works
Choose words, visible characters or bytes and declare how spaces, line breaks and punctuation are counted.
Default words are whitespace-separated chunks containing a letter or number. Internal apostrophes, hyphens and decimals stay together. The browser alternative can differ. Space switches affect visible-character counts, not original bytes or words. Check whether your brief specifies words, visible characters or bytes, and whether titles, references and line breaks count. This counter does not decide those rules. A selected excerpt or explicit included sections avoids accidentally counting the wrong material.
Choose included sections and copy a count report before checking the receiving form’s own counter.
Section counts are added without inventing spaces or separators. Edit the draft using the numeric limit check, then confirm the receiving form’s own count and rules. Copy or download the measurement basis without the draft.
Common questions
Why do counters disagree about punctuation and emoji?
Default words are whitespace-separated chunks containing a letter or number. Internal apostrophes, hyphens and decimals stay together. The browser alternative can differ. Space switches affect visible-character counts, not original bytes or words. A count within the limit does not guarantee upload or submission acceptance. X weighting and URL parsing are approximate; Instagram and YouTube title graphemes can differ from platform units. YouTube also excludes < and >. The receiving form is authoritative. Blocks are arithmetic equivalents, not printed manuscript pages.
Does this count guarantee submission acceptance?
Check whether your brief specifies words, visible characters or bytes, and whether titles, references and line breaks count. This counter does not decide those rules. A selected excerpt or explicit included sections avoids accidentally counting the wrong material. Edit the draft using the numeric limit check, then confirm the receiving form’s own count and rules. Copy or download the measurement basis without the draft.
Is my draft saved or uploaded anywhere?
Processed in this tab only. No draft history or upload. TXT only, at most 1 MiB and 200,000 UTF-16 units. Rich documents are not decoded. A leading UTF-8 BOM is omitted; the editor may normalize line endings.
Practical guides
- Words, characters and bytes: counting conventions
Explain words, visible characters and bytes with apostrophes, hyphens, decimals and emoji examples.
- Sections and length limits: a submission checklist
Work selected sections and the sourced three-answer UCAS example, preserving receiving-form authority.
Scope and limitations
A count within the limit does not guarantee upload or submission acceptance. X weighting and URL parsing are approximate; Instagram and YouTube title graphemes can differ from platform units. YouTube also excludes < and >. The receiving form is authoritative. Blocks are arithmetic equivalents, not printed manuscript pages.