What this does
Assignment briefs say “800–1000 words.” Different tools count hyphenation and footnotes differently. This page shows words, sentences, and a rough reading time so you can see if you are in the window. It is not a plagiarism checker and not a citation generator.
SMS and meta counters obsess over characters. Essays obsess over words. Same component, different contract with the user.
Anyone who has been burned by Docs saying 998 and the portal saying 1004.
Word counts are social contracts. The number is less important than using the same rules as the person grading you.
If you are 200 words short, you need arguments, not adjectives. A counter cannot invent sources.
Hyphenated compounds, citations, and pasted PDF line-breaks are where Word, Docs, and this counter disagree by a handful of tokens. If the portal hard-rejects at 1000.000, sit at 980 and do not fight the last twelve words.
Reading time is a rough adult-silent-reading estimate, not a speech timer. Use it to see if a “five-minute reflection” is actually a three-page essay. The rubric still wins.
When to use it
- A min word count is enforced on upload.
- You need a quick reading-time sanity check.
- You pasted from PDF and want to see if line breaks inflated counts.
How to
- Copy the body. Skip title page if the school says so.
- Paste. Read the words figure.
- Edit in your writer. This is a counter, not an editor with styles.
- Count again. Before submit.
Features
- Words and sentences. More than a single number.
- Reading time. Rough minutes at a standard rate.
- Private. Unpublished essays stay in the tab.
Why it helps
- Rubric check. See min/max before the 11:59pm upload.
- Structure hint. Sentence count going wild usually means run-ons.
Use cases
- Undergrad papers. 800-word reflections.
- Statements of purpose. Hard caps on portal textareas.
Examples
- Docs vs portal. Docs 1002, portal 989 because of how they split “state-of-the-art.” Leave a margin.
Common mistakes
- Including the bibliography in the paste when the rubric says body only.
- Pasting twice. Clear first.
Tips
- Paste only the body the rubric counts.
- If the portal uses a different tokenizer, aim a little inside the range, not on the exact edge.
FAQ
- Does this match Microsoft Word?
- Close, not guaranteed identical. When the grade depends on it, the portal’s counter wins.
- Footnotes?
- If you paste them, they count. Leave them out if the rubric excludes them.