# Word Counter > Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with reading and speaking time and your top keywords. Free, private, runs in your browser. Use it free at https://swipetolaunch.com/tools/word-counter ## How to use it 1. **Paste or type.** Drop in a draft, a product description or a whole article. Nothing leaves your browser. 2. **Watch the counts.** Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs update on every keystroke. 3. **Check the timing.** Reading time at 238 words a minute and speaking time at 150, plus the words you use most. ## Why word count still matters Most places you publish have a limit. Meta descriptions get cut around 155–160 characters, X posts stop at 280, App Store subtitles at 30, Product Hunt taglines at 60. Write to the limit in one place and you stop pasting into five different fields to see what fits. Length also sets expectations. A launch post that runs 1,800 words reads as a story; one that runs 300 reads as an announcement. Neither is wrong, but you should choose on purpose. ## How the counts work - **Words** are runs of letters or numbers. Hyphenated words like "well-known" and contractions like "don't" count once. - **Characters** count what you see, so an emoji is one character, not the two or four code units some tools report. - **Sentences** end at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space. Abbreviations such as "Dr." and "e.g." and initials like "J. R." do not end a sentence. - **Paragraphs** are blocks separated by a blank line. ## Reading and speaking time Reading time uses 238 words a minute, the average for adults reading non-fiction in English from a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies. Speaking time uses 150 words a minute, a comfortable pace for a talk, podcast or demo video. If you are scripting a 60-second launch video, aim for about 150 words. ## Using the keyword list The top keywords table skips stop words like "the" and "and", so what is left is what your text is actually about. If the list does not match the topic you want to rank for, the copy is drifting. For phrase-level counts and a target keyword check, use the [keyword density checker](/tools/keyword-density-checker). To see whether the text is easy to read, run it through the [readability checker](/tools/readability-checker). ## What you get - Words, characters (with and without spaces), sentences, paragraphs - Reading time at 238 wpm and speaking time at 150 wpm - Top 10 keywords with stop words removed - Counts emoji and accented letters correctly - Runs in your browser; your text is never uploaded ## Questions ### How many words is a 5 minute read? About 1,200 words at an average adult reading speed of 238 words a minute. A 5 minute talk is closer to 750 words at a speaking pace of 150 words a minute. ### Do hyphenated words count as one word? Yes. "Well-known" and "self-serve" count as one word each, the same way most word processors count them. Contractions like "don't" also count once. ### Does the character count include spaces? Both are shown. Use the count with spaces for limits like meta descriptions and social posts, which count every character, and the count without spaces for some academic and translation briefs. ### Is my text stored anywhere? No. The counting happens in your browser with JavaScript. Nothing is sent to a server, so it is safe for unpublished drafts.