Word Counter
Live text analysis: type or paste text to see stats instantly.
Top 10 Most Frequent Words
stop words excludedFree online word counter with reading time and character count
Knowing exactly how many words are in your text is essential for blog posts, academic essays, social media copy, and SEO content. AlteredIdea's word counter gives you a complete picture in one place: word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentence count, paragraph count, reading time, speaking time, and a frequency breakdown of your top content words.
Unlike basic word processors, this tool filters stop words from the frequency analysis so you can immediately see which content words dominate your writing. It runs entirely in your browser: no text is ever uploaded to a server, making it safe for confidential documents.
Step-by-step guide
- 1Paste or type your text
Click into the text area and paste your document, essay, article, or any block of text. - 2See live statistics
Word count, character count, sentence count, and paragraph count update in real time as you type. - 3Check reading and speaking time
Estimated reading time (at 200 wpm) and speaking time (at 130 wpm) are calculated automatically. - 4Review top word frequency
The tool lists the top 10 most frequent words with stop words filtered out, showing a visual bar chart. - 5Copy your stats report
Click 'Copy Stats Report' to export a formatted summary of all metrics to your clipboard.
Related Tools
Case Converter
Instantly convert text to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case, Sentence case, camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, and kebab-case.
Slug Generator
Convert any text to URL-safe slugs with custom separators, case options, accent transliteration, and max length control.
Text Sorter
Sort lines alphabetically, by length, randomly, or in reverse. Remove duplicates, trim whitespace, and eliminate empty lines.
Text Cleaner
Strip extra whitespace, remove special characters, normalize line endings, and clean up messy copy-pasted text.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How does the word counter count words?
- Words are counted by matching sequences of alphabetic characters and apostrophes separated by whitespace or punctuation. Numbers and special characters are not counted as words unless combined with letters.
- Does the word counter include reading time?
- Yes. Reading time is estimated at 200 words per minute (average adult reading speed) and speaking time at 130 words per minute, both displayed in minutes and seconds.
- Is there a character limit?
- There is a soft warning at 10,000 characters, but the tool continues to work beyond that limit. All processing happens in your browser with no data sent to any server.
- What are stop words and why are they excluded from the frequency list?
- Stop words are common function words like 'the', 'a', 'is', 'and' that appear in almost every text. Excluding them gives a more meaningful picture of which content words dominate your writing.
- Can I count words in multiple languages?
- The word splitter works on any Latin-script text. Accurate word counts for CJK languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) require language-specific tokenization which this tool does not currently provide.
- Does the tool save my text?
- No. Your text never leaves your device. The tool runs entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript.
- What is the difference between characters with spaces and without spaces?
- 'Characters with spaces' is the total length of your text including spaces and line breaks. 'Without spaces' counts only non-whitespace characters, useful for platforms that charge per character excluding spaces.
- How is average sentence length calculated?
- Average sentence length is the total word count divided by the number of sentences. Sentences are detected by full stops, exclamation marks, and question marks.
- Can I use this for SEO content writing?
- Yes. Many content guidelines recommend 1,500–2,500 words for long-form articles. The reading time estimate also helps you gauge whether your content matches the expected engagement time for your target keyword.
- Is the word counter free to use?
- Yes, completely free with no account, no login, and no usage limits. AlteredIdea tools are self-contained and run entirely in the browser.
AlteredIdea vs alternatives
vs Google Docs / Word: Those tools show a basic word count in the status bar but lack reading time, speaking time, stop-word-filtered frequency analysis, and a copyable stats report: all available here instantly.
vs browser extensions: No install required, and your text is never exposed to a browser extension that could read every tab you have open.
vs paid SEO tools: Free, instant, no account needed. Get word count and frequency data without a subscription or credit card.