What a word counter actually counts
A word counter splits your text on whitespace and counts what is left. That sounds settled, and it is not: the disagreement between any two tools is entirely about what they decide a word is.
Word Status counts a word as a run of characters bounded by whitespace, after punctuation at the edges is discarded. So state-of-the-art is one word, e.g. is one word, and don’t is one word. A number is a word. An emoji on its own is not, because it contains no letters or digits to count.
Every number on this page updates as you type, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored on a server — paste a contract, a manuscript or a medical note and it stays on your machine.
Where the counts come from
| Metric | How it is measured | Common disagreement |
|---|---|---|
| Words | Whitespace-separated runs containing a letter or digit | Hyphens, contractions, numerals |
| Characters | Every code point, spaces included | Whether spaces count |
| Sentences | Terminated by ., !, ? or a line ending | Abbreviations, decimals, ellipses |
| Paragraphs | Blocks separated by a blank line | Whether a list is one or many |
| Syllables | A vowel-group heuristic with a correction list | No two tools agree at all |
Sentence splitting is where most tools quietly differ. Dr. Smith arrived at 9 a.m. is one sentence, not three, and getting that wrong changes every readability score on the page, because all six of them divide by the number of sentences.
Readability, and what the scores are for
Six formulas run over your text at once. They are all approximations of the same idea — long sentences and long words are harder — and they express it on different scales.
- Flesch reading ease — 0 to 100, higher is easier. Plain English sits at 60–70.
- Flesch–Kincaid grade — the US school grade needed to read it comfortably.
- Gunning fog — years of formal education, weighted towards long words.
- SMOG — built for health information, and the most conservative of the six.
- Coleman–Liau — counts letters rather than syllables, so it never guesses.
- Automated readability — the same idea, tuned on technical writing.
A readability score is a smoke alarm, not a critic. It tells you where to look. It cannot tell you whether the sentence is any good.
The number worth acting on is rarely the grade level. It is the list of difficult sentences in the sidebar: click one and it scrolls into view, highlighted, so you can see what made it hard rather than being told a document-wide average.
What the highlights mean
- Difficult and very hard sentences — long, or dense with long words, or both.
- Passive voice — was written by, were made. Not wrong; worth noticing.
- Complex words — three syllables or more, where a shorter word usually exists.
- Vague words — very, quite, some, things. Words that take up room.
- Adverbs — the -ly ones, which usually mean the verb is doing too little.
Turn any of them off with a shift-click on its row. They are suggestions with a colour, not rules.
How long is a piece of writing
Reading time assumes 238 words per minute, which is the median for adults reading prose on a screen. Speaking time assumes 140, which is a comfortable presentation pace rather than a fast one. Both are adjustable in the sidebar, because a technical audience reads slower and an audiobook narrator reads slower still.
For page counts, the rule of thumb that survives contact with reality is 250 words to a double-spaced page in 12pt Times New Roman with one-inch margins, and 500 words to a single-spaced one. Anything more precise depends on your font, and any tool that claims otherwise is guessing on your behalf.
Frequently asked questions
Is Word Status free?
Yes, and there is no account to make. Every count and every score is computed in your browser, so there is no server cost to recover and nothing to sign up for.
Does my text get uploaded anywhere?
No. The analysis runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript that was downloaded with the page. Your text is never sent to a server, never logged and never stored anywhere but your own machine. You can disconnect from the internet and the counter keeps working.
Why does my word count differ from Microsoft Word?
Because Word counts some things this tool does not, and the other way round. The usual causes are hyphenated compounds, numbers with units, text inside footnotes or headers, and how each tool treats an em dash between two words with no spaces around it. A gap of under one percent on a long document is normal and is not a sign that either is broken.
How many words is a typical page?
About 250 words for a double-spaced page and about 500 for a single-spaced page, in 12pt Times New Roman with one-inch margins. Changing to Arial, or to 11pt, moves both figures by roughly ten percent.
What is a good readability score?
For general audiences, aim for a Flesch reading ease of 60 or above, which is roughly a US grade 8 reading level. Technical documentation written for specialists can sit lower without being a problem. Anything below 30 is hard going for almost everyone.
Can I edit my text here rather than pasting it back and forth?
Yes. This is a full editor: headings, bold, italics, lists, quotes, links and tables all work, and your document is saved in your browser between visits. Export it as plain text, Markdown or a standalone HTML file when you are finished.