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Sentence counter with word and character counts

This sentence counter shows how many sentences are in your text and updates the count as you type or paste. It also counts words, characters with and without whitespace, and paragraphs. It estimates reading and speaking time from the word count. Counting runs in your browser, in a worker thread on this page.

Counts update as you type.

Loading the counter…

Text statistics

Words
0
Characters
0
Without whitespace
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0

Estimated time

words per minute

Reading time 0 seconds

words per minute

Speaking time 0 seconds

Choose positive rates. These are editable assumptions, not measured speeds. Displayed times round up to the next second.

How to count sentences, words and characters

Paste or type your text. Then read the Sentences figure under Text statistics.

  1. Type or paste into the Your text box. The tool starts counting 200 milliseconds after your last keystroke and fills in Words, Characters, Without whitespace, Sentences and Paragraphs. With an input method, the counts clear while you compose and update after you commit the text.
  2. Pick the Language for text analysis. The list has 20 languages with English first, and the tool passes your choice to the browser's text segmenter.
  3. Under Estimated time, set Reading speed and Speaking speed, which start at 200 and 130 words per minute. Each rate must be a positive number. While either box is empty or invalid, the counts do not update.
  4. Select Count again to rerun the count. While a count runs, Cancel stops it and keeps your text. Clear text empties the box.
  5. Select Download report to save word-counter-report.txt. It lists the counts, the language and the rates, and leaves out your text.

How the sentence count works

The browser's own sentence rules decide where each sentence ends. A segment counts as a sentence only if it holds a letter or a number, so "?!" or a lone emoji adds nothing. A last sentence with no end mark still counts. The tool's counting engine gives these results:

  • "The rate was 3.14 today. Was that high? Yes" counts 3 sentences. The decimal point does not end a sentence.
  • "Bring fruit, e.g. apples. Then leave." counts 2. A period followed by a lowercase letter does not end a sentence.
  • A title such as "Weekly report" on its own line, followed by two short sentences, counts 3. Every line break ends a sentence, so a heading or a bulleted item adds one.
  • A sentence that is hard-wrapped across two lines counts as 2. Join those lines before you count.

When the sentence count runs high or low

The count runs high after an abbreviation or a list number, and low when a period after a word has no space after it. A period followed by a space and a capital letter ends a sentence, even when it belongs to an abbreviation such as Mr. or to a list number.

  • "Dr. Smith met Mr. Jones." counts 3 sentences, two more than a reader counts. Each abbreviation such as Mr., Dr. or U.S. before a capitalized word adds one.
  • A list of "1. Milk", "2. Eggs" and "3. Bread" on three lines counts 6. Each number with its period counts as a sentence of its own. A numbered heading such as "1. Introduction" counts 2. Bulleted items, and items numbered as "1)", add one each.
  • "It ends here.Next one starts." counts 1. A period that sits between a word and a capital letter, with no space, does not end a sentence. The missing space joins two sentences into one.

How words, characters, paragraphs and time are counted

Words and characters follow the browser's text rules. A paragraph ends at a blank line, and reading or speaking time is the word count divided by the speed you set.

Words are the word-like segments the browser finds. Punctuation and emoji on their own are not words. A contraction such as "isn't" counts as one word, while "well-known" counts as two. Chinese, Japanese and Thai text without spaces still splits into words, so "你好世界。" counts 2 words and 5 characters.

Characters are grapheme clusters, the units a reader sees as one character. A letter with a combining accent counts once, and so does a family emoji built from several code points. Without whitespace drops every character that is only whitespace, including a non-breaking space.

At 200 words per minute, 1,000 words take 5 min to read. Speaking them at 130 words per minute takes 461.5 seconds, shown as 7 min 42 sec because times round up to the next second.

Limits

The counter reads only text you type or paste. It has no file input, so it cannot open a PDF, a Word document or an image.

It shows totals only and does not list or highlight the sentences it found. It has no grammar or spelling check, readability score, average sentence length, word frequency, line count or letters-only count. It does not count AI tokens, the weighted length of an X post or SMS segments.

The tool does not measure how fast you read or speak. The speeds are assumptions you set.

Counts follow the browser's own text rules, so another browser or version can give different numbers. In our Chrome checks, a period between two letters split a word, so "e.g." and "example.com" each counted as two words. Switching Language for text analysis did not change any count for our samples in six languages.

The tool sets no limit on text length, but the browser's available memory still applies. It needs JavaScript, Web Workers and Intl.Segmenter.

Questions

Which sentence counter should I use?

Use a sentence counter tool that states its sentence rules, and test it on a sample of your own text. On this page, a decimal such as 3.14 stays inside its sentence, and a line break always ends one. An abbreviation such as Mr. followed by a space and a capital letter adds one sentence too many.

Does Google Docs have a sentence counter feature?

Google's help page for word count in Docs lists pages, words, characters and characters without spaces, and no sentence count. To count sentences, paste the document's text into the Your text box and read Sentences. Each line break ends a sentence, so a heading on its own line adds one, and a numbered heading such as "1. Introduction" adds two.

How do I count the sentences in a paragraph?

Paste the paragraph into the Your text box and read the Sentences figure. A sentence counts when it contains a letter or number, and a last sentence without an end mark still counts. If the paragraph has line breaks inside its sentences, join the lines first, because each line break ends a sentence.

Does the character count include spaces?

Yes, the Characters figure counts each space, tab and line break as one character. Without whitespace leaves out every character that is only whitespace. For "one two three" the tool shows 13 characters and 11 without whitespace. When a form or an assignment sets a character limit, check which of the two counts it means.

How are words counted in Chinese or Japanese text?

The browser's word rules split text that has no spaces into words. "今日は晴れです。明日は雨です。" counts 8 words, and "你好世界。" counts 2. Characters counts each Chinese character, kana and punctuation mark once, so the Japanese sample has 15. When a word limit in Chinese or Japanese means characters, read Characters instead of Words.

How many words is a 5-minute speech?

At the default Speaking speed of 130 words per minute, a 5-minute speech is 650 words. The same rate gives 260 words for 2 minutes, 390 for 3 and 1,300 for 10. The default is an assumption you can change. Set Speaking speed to your own pace, paste your draft and read Speaking time.

Is my text uploaded?

No. The tool sends your text only to a worker thread inside this page, and its code makes no network request with it. It does not save the text in browser storage. The downloaded report holds the counts, the language and the rates, and leaves your text out.