How the counts are defined
- Words: runs of characters between spaces or line breaks that contain at least one letter or number. “don’t”, “well-known” and “3.14” are one word each.
- Characters: every Unicode code point, spaces and line breaks included. “No spaces” leaves out all whitespace.
- Sentences: text that ends with . ! ? or … (and any closing quote or bracket) followed by a space or the end, and has a word in it. Text after the last mark counts as one more.
- Paragraphs: blocks separated by one or more blank lines.
Reading time = words ÷ words per minute
The speed is yours to set; 200 words per minute is only a starting assumption.
Example
The text: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Is it well-known? Yes! It costs $3.14, said Dr. Lee. / A second paragraph. (“ / ” marks the blank line).
- Words: 22. Characters: 118, or 96 without whitespace.
- Sentences: 6. The sixth is “Lee.”, split off by the abbreviation “Dr.”.
- Paragraphs: 2. Reading time at 200 words per minute: 22 ÷ 200 × 60 = about 7 sec.
Questions
Does my text leave my device?
No. The page counts in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. It makes no network request while you type or paste.
Why is the default 200 words per minute?
It is a round starting assumption, not a measured average. Reading speed varies with the reader and the text, so change it to match yours (50 to 1,000).
Why does “Dr. Lee” count as two sentences?
A full stop followed by a space ends a sentence here, and the counter cannot tell an abbreviation from a sentence end. Numbers like 3.14 are not split.
How are characters counted?
By Unicode code point, so an emoji is one character. An emoji with a skin tone is two code points and counts as two.
Does it work for Chinese or Japanese text?
Not for words: those scripts have no spaces between words, so each unbroken run counts as one word.