Tools / Word and reading time counter
Count it before you brief it.
Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and an estimated reading time. Useful for hitting a brief and for spotting paragraphs that ran away from you.
Counts
Paste some text to see the counts.
How to use this well
Reading time here assumes about 230 words per minute, which is a common average for adults reading on screen. It is an estimate, not a measurement of your particular readers.
Average sentence length is the number worth watching. Long sentences are not automatically bad, but a document where every sentence is long is hard work, and the average catches that faster than reading it back does.
This runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent anywhere or stored.
Common questions
How long should a blog post be?
As long as the question needs. Length follows search intent: a definition needs a few hundred words, a complete how-to guide often needs a couple of thousand. Padding to hit a number is visible to readers.
Is reading time accurate?
It is an estimate based on an average reading speed. Technical content with code or tables takes longer than the estimate suggests.
Do word counts affect rankings?
Not on their own. Longer pages often rank because thorough answers tend to be longer, not because length is a ranking factor.