Character & Word Counter
Characters with and without spaces, words, bytes and reading time. Set a limit and watch what is left.
Which number matters
Application forms usually count characters with spaces. Academic abstracts often say without spaces, and some government or Korean job portals count bytes. The instructions always say which one; this page shows all three so you can match it.
Why there are two byte counts
Korean and Japanese forms that say "2,000 bytes" almost always mean the legacy rule where a CJK character is 2 bytes and Latin letters are 1. Modern files are stored as UTF-8, where a CJK character is 3 bytes. Use the count that matches the form you are filling in.
Why counters disagree by a few characters
Whether a line break counts, and whether an emoji built from several code points counts as one, changes the total by one or two. This page counts what a reader sees as one character (grapheme clusters) and treats line breaks as whitespace. Leave a margin of 5–10 characters under any hard limit.
Reading time and pages
Reading time assumes about 1,000 characters per minute of English, roughly 200 words. The page estimate uses 250 words per double-spaced page.
Tips for common situations
Estimate Speaking Time for Scripts
Paste your speech draft to see the estimated reading time alongside word, sentence, and paragraph counts. Use paragraph and sentence metrics to pace your delivery and ensure you stay within your allotted presentation slot.
Monitor Essay Limits with Progress Bar
Set your assignment's word or character cap to see a live progress bar and remaining count as you write. Characters with and without spaces are shown side by side, so you can match whichever metric your university or publisher requires.
Check Byte Counts Before Sending SMS
The tool displays byte totals under both the legacy 2-byte-per-CJK standard and UTF-8 encoding, helping you stay within messaging system limits. Set a byte threshold to see remaining capacity update in real time as you edit your message text.
Tried with sample values
Screens and numbers from actually running this tool with sample values (2026-10-06, Chromium-based browser on a Mac). Results vary with your input and device.
A sample self-introduction was pasted in and the 500-character limit was selected. The count shows 176 characters with spaces, 133 without, and 324 remaining. Word count is 44, with 3 sentences, 2 lines, and 1 paragraph.
Byte counts are 299 (2 bytes per Korean character) and 422 (UTF-8). Manuscript page count is 1 and estimated reading time is 1 minute. The text stays in the browser only and is not sent to a server.
Frequently asked
Where does my text go?
Nowhere. Counting happens in your browser, and the text is kept only in this browser's local storage so it survives a reload. Clear removes it.
How many words is 500 characters?
About 80–100 English words. For Korean, 500 characters is roughly 100–125 words.
Why does Word give a different count?
Word ignores line breaks and counts some punctuation differently. The form you are submitting to is the final judge, so check there once more.
Does the tool provide character limit targets and progress tracking?
Yes, you can set custom character limits or use 500/1000-character presets with live remaining counts and progress bars.
Can I see byte counts and estimated reading time for my text?
Yes, the tool calculates both CJK (2-byte) and standard UTF-8 byte counts, manuscript page equivalents, and estimated reading time.
Does it break down metrics by words, sentences, and paragraphs?
Yes, along with character counts (with/without spaces), it displays total words, sentences, lines, and paragraph counts.
Can I use this character counter without an active internet connection?
Yes, all counting and local storage occur completely within your browser, so it functions offline once opened.