Free tool
Word counter words, characters and reading time.
Live word and character counts, reading time, and whether it still fits the caption box.
Fits where
Most used words
- Type something to see them.
Word counter at a glance
content.win counts as you type, free, with the real caption limits for each platform built in.
- Works with
- Any text, pasted or typed.
- Comes back as
- Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time and caption limits for Instagram, X, TikTok and LinkedIn.
- Runs
- In your browser.
- Limits
- No limit on length.
- Price
- Free. No account.
How it counts
- Words
- Runs of letters or numbers. Hyphenated words and contractions count once. Emoji and stray punctuation don't count. A URL is one word.
- Characters
- Everything, including spaces and line breaks, which is how caption limits are enforced. The second figure leaves out spaces for the few places that count that way.
- Sentences and paragraphs
- A sentence ends at a full stop, question or exclamation mark followed by a space. A paragraph is a block separated by a blank line.
- Reading and speaking time
- 238 words a minute for silent reading, the adult average across reading-speed studies, and 150 a minute spoken, a relaxed presenting pace. Use the spoken figure to time a script.
- Fits where
- Your character count against each platform's limit. Green fits, red says how far over. X counts most emoji as two characters, so leave room there.
- Most used words
- The five words you lean on most, with common function words removed. Handy for catching a crutch word before a reader does.
Good to know
- Counting runs as you type.
- No length limit. A book manuscript counts as fast as a caption.
Questions people ask
What counts as a word?
Any run of letters or numbers, so 2026, don't and self-taught each count as one. Emoji, hashtags' # signs and punctuation on their own are not words. A URL counts as one word, the way most editors treat it.
Why is the count different from Word or Google Docs?
Editors differ on hyphens, apostrophes, numbers and URLs, so counts can drift by a word or two on long texts. Platforms count characters, not words, and character counts match exactly.
What is reading time based on?
An average adult silent reading speed of 238 words a minute, from a 2019 review of reading-rate studies. Speaking time uses 150 words a minute, a comfortable presenting pace. Both round to the nearest quarter minute.
Does it count emoji as characters?
Yes, as one character each, which is how Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn count them. X counts most emoji as two characters, so a post full of emoji has less room there than the number here suggests.
Which platform limits does it check?
X posts at 280 characters, Bluesky at 300, Threads at 500, Pinterest descriptions at 500, Instagram captions at 2,200, LinkedIn posts at 3,000, TikTok captions at 4,000, YouTube titles at 100 and descriptions at 5,000, plus the 60 and 155 characters Google usually shows of a page title and description.
How are sentences and paragraphs counted?
A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space or line break. A paragraph is any block of text separated by a blank line.