Word Counter

In short A word counter splits text on whitespace and counts the runs, which is exactly how Microsoft Word and Google Docs count — so "state-of-the-art" is one word, "e.g." is one word, and "In 2026 we grew 40%" is five. That whitespace rule is why word counts from different tools agree on ordinary prose and diverge on things like hyphenated compounds and numbers: there is no deeper definition being applied, only the spaces. Characters are counted two ways because the limits people work to are split the same way. A meta description budget of 155 counts spaces; a database column of 100 usually does not. Reading and speaking times come from the same word count divided by a rate: 238 words per minute for silent adult reading of English non-fiction, which is the figure from Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of nearly two hundred studies, and 140 for speaking, which is the pace most presentation coaches aim at. A thousand-word article is therefore about four minutes to read and seven to say out loud, and that gap is why a script written to be read always overruns when it is spoken.