How the counts work
- Words: groups of letters or numbers. Contractions like don't and hyphenated words like well-known count as one word.
- Characters: every character including spaces and line breaks. Emoji count as one character each, matching what you see.
- Characters without spaces: the same count with all spaces and line breaks left out.
- Sentences: text ending in a period, question mark or exclamation mark, plus any unfinished sentence at the end.
- Paragraphs: blocks of text separated by a blank line.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time assumes 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for adults reading non-fiction found in a large 2019 review of reading research. Speaking time assumes 140 words per minute, a comfortable pace for a presentation or speech. Fast speakers might reach 160.
Common word and character limits
| Where | Typical limit |
|---|---|
| Google search result title | About 60 characters before it's cut off |
| Meta description | About 150 to 160 characters |
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters |
| Common App college essay | 650 words |
| Text message (SMS) | 160 characters per message |
Limits change, so check the current rule for the platform or application you're writing for.