Home › Everyday Life › Text Statistics Calculator

Text Statistics Calculator

Counts characters (with and without spaces), words, unique words, sentences and paragraphs of a text, computes average word and sentence length, the most frequent words and the longest word, and estimates silent reading time at 238 words per minute (Brysbaert 2019) and speaking time at 150 words per minute.

When to use

You need a word or character count, word frequencies, or the reading and speaking time of a passage, essay, speech or post, for example to check a length limit.

Do not use when: You need readability grades (use reading-level), reading time from a word count you already have (use reading-time), or typing speed (use typing-speed).

Formula

words = whitespace tokens containing a letter or digit; sentences = max(1, segments split at [.!?]+ followed by whitespace or end); paragraphs = max(1, blocks split at blank lines); average_word_length = Σ letters and digits per word / words; reading_time_seconds = words / reading_speed_wpm × 60; speaking_time_seconds = words / speaking_speed_wpm × 60

Counting follows common word-processor conventions: hyphenated words and numbers count as one word, and abbreviations with periods ('e.g. ') end a sentence. Reading speed defaults to Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analytic mean for silent reading of English non-fiction (238 wpm; fiction 260 wpm).

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Unit	Required	Description
`text`	string		yes	The text to analyse, up to 20,000 characters.
`reading_speed_wpm`	number	wpm	default 238	Silent reading speed in words per minute; 238 wpm is the adult mean for non-fiction (Brysbaert 2019). Range: ≥ 50, ≤ 2000
`speaking_speed_wpm`	number	wpm	default 150	Speaking pace in words per minute; 150 wpm is a typical presentation or audiobook pace. Range: ≥ 50, ≤ 500

Outputs

Output	Type	Unit	Description
`characters`	integer		All characters including spaces and line breaks (Unicode code points).
`characters_without_spaces`	integer		Characters excluding all whitespace.
`words`	integer		Whitespace-separated tokens that contain at least one letter or digit.
`unique_words`	integer		Distinct words, case-insensitive, ignoring surrounding punctuation.
`sentences`	integer		Segments ending in . ! or ? (optionally followed by a closing quote or bracket) before whitespace or the end of the text (minimum 1).
`paragraphs`	integer		Blocks of text separated by blank lines (minimum 1).
`average_word_length`	number	characters	Letters and digits of all words ÷ words (punctuation, apostrophes and hyphens are not counted).
`average_sentence_length_words`	number	words	words / sentences.
`unique_word_ratio_percent`	number	%	unique_words / words × 100 (lexical variety).
`reading_time_seconds`	number	s	words / reading_speed_wpm × 60.
`reading_time_text`	string		Reading time as h / min / s.
`speaking_time_seconds`	number	s	words / speaking_speed_wpm × 60.
`speaking_time_text`	string		Speaking time as h / min / s.
`longest_word`	string		First word with the most letters and digits.
`top_words`	list		Up to 10 rows of word and count for words of 3 or more characters, most frequent first (ties in order of first appearance).

Example

Pangram plus a second sentence: {"text":"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It was a sunny day!"} → {"characters":64,"characters_without_spaces":51,"words":14,"unique_words":13,"sentences":2,"paragraphs":1,"average_word_length":3.5,"average_sentence_length_words":7,"reading_time_seconds":3.5,"speaking_time_seconds":5.6,"longest_word":"quick"}

Two paragraphs with repeated words: {"text":"Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.\n\nLittle Johnny wants to play; rain, rain, go away!","reading_speed_wpm":238,"speaking_speed_wpm":150} → {"characters":95,"characters_without_spaces":78,"words":17,"unique_words":12,"sentences":3,"paragraphs":2,"average_word_length":4.12,"reading_time_seconds":4.3,"speaking_time_seconds":6.8,"longest_word":"another","top_words":[{"word":"rain","count":4},{"word":"away","count":2},{"word":"come","count":1},{"word":"again","count":1},{"word":"another","count":1},{"word":"day","count":1},{"word":"little","count":1},{"word":"johnny","count":1},{"word":"wants","count":1},{"word":"play","count":1}]}

GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/text-statistics?text=The+quick+brown+fox+jumps+over+the+lazy+dog.+It+was+a+sunny+day%21

Machine access

API: GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/text-statistics (query parameters) or POST with a JSON body {"inputs": {...}}
Schema: https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculators/text-statistics · Markdown: https://tttkmbb.com/everyday/text-statistics.md · JSON definition: https://tttkmbb.com/everyday/text-statistics.json
MCP: server https://tttkmbb.com/mcp, tool run_calculator with calculator_id="text-statistics"
OpenAPI operationId: analyze_text_statistics
Freshness: static. Authentication: none. Rate limit: fair use (see rate limits).

Sources

FAQ

Why does the word count differ from my word processor?

Tools differ on hyphens, slashes, numbers and stand-alone punctuation. Here any whitespace-separated token with a letter or digit is one word, which matches Microsoft Word for ordinary prose.

How are sentences detected?

A sentence ends at . ! or ? followed by a space or the end of the text, so abbreviations such as 'Dr. ' add a sentence; a text without terminal punctuation counts as one sentence.

What speaking speed should I use?

Conversational English runs 150–160 wpm; slow, formal presentations 100–130 wpm; auctioneers and fast speakers exceed 200 wpm. Audiobooks are recorded near 150 wpm.

Related calculators

Reading Time Calculator — Reading time from a word count alone.
Reading Level Calculator — Readability grades for the same text.
Typing Speed Calculator — Words per minute for typing.