Essay Word Counter
Paste an essay and the length is counted straight away. You also see whether it fits the TOEFL, IELTS or Common App limits, and which sentences have run too long.
Nothing you paste ever leaves your browser.
Copy it straight out of Word or Google Docs. There is no button to press — the word and character counts change as you type. Separating paragraphs with a blank line makes the paragraph count more accurate.
Choose the test you are preparing for from TOEFL, IELTS or Common App, and a bar plus a short line of text tells you whether you are inside the range. If the prompt gives its own limit, use "Custom" and type the minimum and maximum.
Sentences over 40 words, words you have repeated, and the share of first-person language are all listed. None of this means you have made a mistake — it simply points at the places worth rereading.
"Copy results" puts the length summary on your clipboard as plain text. It is handy when you ask someone for feedback, or when you want to compare a draft before and after cutting.
Text is split on whitespace and dashes (—). Hyphenated words such as well-known and words with an apostrophe such as don’t count as one word. The result normally matches Word and Google Docs, but each program has slightly different rules, so a few words either way is possible. When the limit is tight, check the number on the actual submission screen as well.
The box simply will not take it. Pasting a longer text cuts off the end, so trim it before you submit. When this tool shows "Over the limit", it also tells you how many words you need to remove.
They summarise the public guidance as of August 2026. Test formats and college requirements change, so always check the official instructions for the year you are applying. Supplemental essays in particular vary by college and by prompt, so "Custom" is the accurate choice there.
A sentence is treated as finished when a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark is followed by a capital letter. Common abbreviations such as Mr., Dr., e.g. and U.S. are handled so they do not end a sentence, but an unusual abbreviation or a missing full stop can still throw the count off. If a paragraph does not end with punctuation, the results say so.
If there is at least one blank line, blank lines are treated as the paragraph breaks. If there is none, every line counts as a paragraph. If a paste from Word gives an odd paragraph count, put one blank line between paragraphs.
It assumes 200 words per minute reading silently and 130 words per minute reading aloud. Both are rough figures that depend on the reader and the difficulty of the text, so treat them as a starting point for rehearsing a presentation.
Words such as the, of and and turn up in every text, so they are excluded by default. Untick the box under the text area if you want to see them. Watching the content words repeat is far more useful when you rewrite.
Yes. There is not a single external library, so once the page has loaded it works with no network at all — on a plane or on the subway.
No. Everything is counted inside your browser and nothing is sent to a server. Closing the page discards what you typed, so keep your own copy of the draft.