Word Count & Reading Time Calculator
Paste text or upload a file. Get word count, reading time, speaking time, and a readability score, for the full text and the Markdown-stripped version.
A no-fuss word counter that does more than count words. Paste text or drop in a .txt or .md file and get the usual numbers (words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs) plus a reading-time estimate at 200 words per minute, a speaking-time estimate at 130 words per minute, and a Flesch reading ease score so you can see whether your draft is plain English or a wall of jargon.
A typical scenario: a content marketer has a 1,500-word target from the client brief and wants to confirm a draft hits it before sending. Paste the Markdown in, toggle strip-formatting, and the prose-only number is the one that matches what the client will count. If you are working in Markdown, the strip-formatting toggle compares raw source against the clean prose your reader actually sees. That gap is usually bigger than you think. Nothing leaves your browser, and the page works offline once it loads. Handy for blog-post drafts, newsletter copy, podcast scripts, and anything else where length and readability matter.
Using the Word Count tool in practice
The main use case is catching mismatch between a draft and its target length. If a client asks for a 1,500-word blog post, paste your draft in and you have an answer in under a second. If you are writing in Markdown, the raw count will be higher than the rendered count, sometimes much higher, because headings, link syntax, image tags, and code fences all add characters that your reader never sees. The strip-Markdown toggle shows both numbers so you know which one matters for your brief.
Reading time is the other number people want. At 200 words per minute, a 1,500-word post is about 7 to 8 minutes. That number is a rule-of-thumb: a heavy technical post with lots of code blocks reads slower, a listicle with short punchy paragraphs reads faster. For podcast scripts the speaking-time number at 130 words per minute is more useful: 1,500 words is roughly an 11-to-12-minute read-aloud, which is a typical mid-length podcast segment. If you are scripting a conference talk, pad by 10 to 15 percent for pauses, audience laughter, and questions.
The Flesch reading-ease score is the most-ignored number on the page and arguably the most useful one. If you are writing for a general audience, aim for 60 or higher. Below 50 means your sentences are long, your words are polysyllabic, or both, which is fine for academic writing but reads as stiff for most web content. A sentence-length chop and a hunt for nominalizations (turning nouns like "implementation" back into verbs like "build") usually adds 10 to 20 points in a single editing pass.
One side note for people using this before sending text to an AI API: word count is not the same as token count. A rough rule is that one word in English is about 1.3 tokens. If you want the dollar-cost estimate too, open the Token Counter. If you want to see why Markdown beats PDF and DOCX on cost for the same word count, see Markdown vs PDF: token efficiency. To turn an existing Word document into clean Markdown for counting or for AI use, try the Word to Markdown converter.
How to use this tool
- 1
Paste your text into the box, or click "Upload .txt / .md" to load a file.
- 2
Read the stats card for words, characters (with/without spaces), sentences, paragraphs, reading time, speaking time, and Flesch reading ease.
- 3
Toggle "Strip Markdown formatting" to compare the raw-source stats against the prose-only stats, which is handy for deciding if a draft is actually as long as it looks.
- 4
If a reading time matters for your publishing workflow, round up to the nearest minute and add 15 seconds per embedded image or chart.
Frequently asked questions
How is reading time calculated?+
We use 200 words per minute as the default silent-reading pace, which is the widely cited average for adult readers on a mix of prose. Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, the pace recommended for presentations and podcasts. Your mileage will vary: technical material reads slower, familiar material faster.
What is Flesch Reading Ease?+
A classic readability score. Higher numbers mean easier to read. 90-100 is roughly 5th-grade level (very easy). 60-70 is plain English for most adults. 30-50 is typical academic or business writing. Below 30 is heavy, like legal or scientific prose. The formula counts syllables, words, and sentences, so very short inputs give noisy results.
What does "strip Markdown" do?+
It runs a quick cleanup pass that removes Markdown syntax (headings, bold, italic, links, code fences, images, blockquotes, lists markers) so you are counting just the prose. This is useful when you care about the content length a reader actually sees, not the raw source length. Both numbers are shown side by side.
What files can I upload?+
Plain text (.txt) and Markdown (.md). Upload happens locally: the file is read by your browser and never uploaded to our servers. Max around 5 MB, though in practice anything above a few hundred KB will slow the page.
Is my text private?+
Yes. Counting happens entirely in the browser. Nothing you paste or upload leaves your machine.
Why do my counts differ from Word or Google Docs?+
Different tools disagree about what counts as a word, especially around hyphenated compounds, URLs, and numbers. Our counter splits on whitespace after collapsing runs of spaces, which is the most common behavior. Expect 1 to 2 percent difference versus Word.
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