How to count words using free online word and character counters

In a world dominated by social media threads, in-app messages, meta descriptions, and targeted content marketing, it’s important to keep track of the exact quantity of words and characters — especially for copywriters, marketers, and anyone whose services deal with text.

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To make it easier for you, we’ve made this super-simple word counting tool. Simply paste your text below, insert the expected cost per word, and you will receive an approximate cost of work — whether copywriting, editing, translation, or otherwise:

Open the document that you want to count the characters in. Click the “Review” tab. Click “Word Count” in the Proofing section. The Word Count window opens and displays the number of characters in the document with and without spaces. The same feature can also be found under the “Tools” menu bar.

MS Word allows you to keep careful track of the words in your document

When you need to count the characters in an Excel spreadsheet, use the LEN function-which counts letters, numbers, characters, and all spaces. To use the function, enter =LEN(cell) in the formula bar, then press Enter on your keyboard. If you need to count characters in multiple cells, apply the same formula to multiple cells, enter the formula in the first cell and then drag the fill handle down (or across) the range of cells.

A simple formula counts the characters in any Excel spreadsheet

If you want to count words, here’s a simple trick: First, use the SUBSTITUTE function to replace all spaces with empty text, and then count the difference. The final formula should look something like =LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1, " ", ""))+1.

To find the count of words, characters, and pages, within a Google Doc, navigate to the “Tools” menu at the top of the page and select the Word Count option.

Google Docs word count is found in the drop-down menu or via a quick keyboard shortcut (⌘+Shift+C on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows)

Both Firefox and Chrome have a range of word counter tools available for installation, for example:

• Word Counter Plus

• XTranslate

• Word Count Tool

• Word Count

These plugins and extensions provide detailed stats on your text, such as the number of words and characters, as well as the average and longest word length.

Whilst these free tools are largely sufficient for the average day-to-day user, those requiring a more complete package might be left wanting. In this case, we suggest you take a look at getLoc, which provides in-depth statistics on unique segments of text, allowing the user to take complete control over each and every aspect of a document or website. By deploying a specialist word counter tool, getLoc delivers the capability to target unique words and understand specific keyword density within selections of text.

Is translating your content something you consider after you’ve done with word counting? Then check out Smartcat and specifically its marketplace of 250,000+ professional translators.