Ever need a way to find out how many words there are in any given digital text? With this fast online tool, you can find the answer without having to open your word processor!

How to use this website to count words?

To use this tool, follow the instructions below to count the words in your selected text:

1. Start by writing or copying and pasting the text you wish to count.
2. Once you have done so, use the blue Count Words on this page countofwords.com . The number of words in your chosen text will be displayed to the right.
3. Reset to clear all text from the text entry field.

Why do you need to count words?

In many cases, the amount of words in a text do not matter in a casual environment; this is doubly true if you are writing anything on paper. The minute you are writing in a formal context though, word count becomes an important factor. From writing legal briefings, novels, or an essay, your wordcount is an element that can influence the outcome of your work, whether that be successful publication of your first novel, or an acceptable grade for your assignment.

Write or paste your text into this online word counter:

Data Privacy

Here at countofwords.com, we do not store any of your personal data. This includes any text that is entered on the site for word counting! If you want to save your document, you should use a text editor or word processor first before copying and pasting the text into the input box.

What are the rules we use to count words?

On this site, we define words using separators such as the empty space, and symbols such as :, @, _ and others like it. This means that any text found in between these separators will qualify as a word. For example, Apples : Oranges would qualify as two words, as would Apples:Oranges. A standard email address such as FirstName_LastName@example.com would count as four words.

Remember that this also applies to symbols such as &, so if you would like Books & Articles to count as three words, as in “Books and Articles”, then you might want to replace all the & signs with the word “and” before you paste it into the text box. We have more details on the exact rules we use here:

Benefits of using countofwords.com over other word counters

Not all word counters behave in the same way; many use different methods to define what qualifies as a word. Some applications only use an empty space as a separator, so that Writer:Works would count as one word, while Writer : Works would instead be three words, with : counting as a word all by itself! Many others have their own qualities, such as not including _ as a separator so that One_Two counts as one word, while including & as a separator, so that One & Two is two words.

More than that, most of these applications require an email sign-up, or you need to have a program installed on your device before you can use them. With this website however, you will always be able to access a word counter no matter where you are, so long as you are able to connect to the internet!