Writing workflow
How to Count Words in Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word shows a basic word count while you write, but a separate online word counter can help when you need character limits, reading time, speaking time, repeated words, or a clean report.
In Microsoft Word, look at the status bar near the bottom of the window. It usually shows the current word count. You can also open the Review tab and choose Word Count to see words, characters, paragraphs, and lines.
How to count part of a document
Select the paragraph, section, or answer you want to measure. Word will show the selected word count in the status bar. This is useful when only the essay body, abstract, introduction, or response field has a limit.
When an online word counter helps
- You need character count with and without spaces for forms, titles, or descriptions.
- You want reading time or speaking time before publishing a script or presentation.
- You need to find repeated words and phrases that make the draft sound weaker.
- You want a quick downloadable text metrics report outside the document.
Paste your text into the Word Counter to see words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, speaking time, and top repeated terms. If the text came from multiple sources, clean spacing first with the Text Cleaner.
Related tools
Word Counter, Character Counter, and Word Frequency Counter.