How reading time is calculated
Reading time here assumes 225 words per minute, which sits in the middle of the range measured for adults reading non-technical prose on a screen. Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, roughly the pace of a clear presentation. Both are estimates — dense technical material slows readers down considerably, and a rehearsed speaker may run faster.
If you are writing to a time slot rather than a word count, the speaking figure is the one to watch. A five-minute conference talk is around 650 words, and most people overshoot because they write for the page rather than the mouth.
What keyword density is good for
Density shows which words repeat most often as a share of your total. It is useful for two things: spotting a word you have leaned on without noticing, and checking that an article about a subject actually mentions that subject.
It is worth being clear about what it is not good for. Writing to hit a target density percentage was an SEO tactic that stopped working a long time ago, and search engines now treat unnaturally repeated phrases as a negative signal. Treat the numbers here as a mirror on your own writing habits, not a dial to tune.
Reading the readability score
The score shown is Flesch Reading Ease, calculated from average sentence length and average syllables per word. Higher means easier. Around 60–70 is standard for general audiences and is roughly where most newspapers sit. Below 30 suggests dense academic or legal phrasing that will lose most readers.
Because the formula only measures sentence and word length, it can be gamed and it can mislead — short sentences full of jargon score well without being clear. Use it as a rough signal, especially for tracking whether a redraft actually got simpler.
Common word count targets
- Tweet / X post — 280 characters
- Meta description — 150–160 characters
- Blog post — 800–1,500 words for most topics
- University essay — usually 1,500–3,000 words
- Five-minute talk — about 650 words spoken
- Cover letter — 250–400 words
Frequently asked questions
How are words counted?
Any run of characters separated by whitespace counts as one word. Hyphenated compounds count as a single word, and numbers count as words — which matches how most academic and publishing guidelines define it.
Is my text saved or sent anywhere?
No. Counting happens in your browser as you type. Nothing is stored, and closing the tab discards everything.
Does it work with Arabic, Chinese or other scripts?
Word counting works for any space-separated script, including Arabic. Languages written without spaces between words, such as Chinese and Japanese, will report the character count accurately but not a meaningful word count.
Why does the sentence count look wrong?
Sentences are detected by terminal punctuation. Abbreviations such as "Dr." or "e.g." can be miscounted as sentence endings, and text without punctuation counts as a single long sentence.