Word counter
Get a live count of characters (with and without spaces), Chinese characters, English words, lines and UTF-8 byte length. Ideal for copywriting, social-media posts, essays, cover letters, or anywhere with a word or character limit.
What each number means
- Characters (with spaces): every character, including spaces and punctuation.
- Characters (no spaces): the count after removing all whitespace.
- Chinese characters: CJK ideographs (excludes punctuation).
- English words: runs of letters or digits.
- Bytes (UTF-8): encoded length — a Chinese character is usually 3 bytes — useful for systems with byte limits.
Works with other tools
If the text is messy, run it through thetext cleanerfirst for a more accurate count. All counting happens in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
FAQ
How are Chinese characters counted?
The tool counts CJK ideographs (i.e. ordinary Chinese characters). Punctuation and spaces are not counted under 'Chinese characters' but are included in the total character count.
How is an English word defined?
An English word is a run of letters or digits (it may include a hyphen or apostrophe, e.g. well-known, it's). Spaces and punctuation separate words.
What's the difference between characters and bytes?
Characters count what you see (one Chinese character = 1 character); bytes is the UTF-8 encoded length, where a Chinese character is usually 3 bytes — useful for systems or database fields with byte limits.