When to use it
Sizing up a blog draft, enforcing tweet or newsletter limits, or estimating how long a talk script will take to read out loud.
Counting rules
- Characters — Unicode code points. Emoji, Hangeul, and CJK characters all count as one.
- No spaces — characters minus whitespace.
- Words — runs of Unicode letters and digits. For Korean this lines up with eojeol (whitespace-separated chunks).
- Sentences — split on
.,?,!,。,…. - Paragraphs — blocks separated by blank lines.
- UTF-8 bytes — useful for database column limits and API caps.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time uses 200 words per minute; speaking time uses 130 wpm. Real-world pace varies by language and content density — Korean syllable-to-eojeol ratios in particular shift the speaking estimate slightly.
Useful targets
- Tweet — 280 characters on X (code points).
- Meta description — 150–160 characters works well for SERPs.
- Email subject — under 50 characters keeps mobile previews intact.
Word count · reading time, locally
Characters (total · excluding whitespace) · words · lines · sentences · paragraphs · UTF-8 bytes · 200wpm reading + 130wpm speaking time. The text itself is never stored.