Follow this example to count a draft, measure one sentence, inspect a recurring phrase and save the measurements you reviewed. Open Word Counter.
Open the draft and read the live counts
Choose Upload text file and import writing-draft.txt, or choose Write or paste text and enter the source below. The editor counts automatically; wait for Up to date before opening a report. Our source has two paragraphs separated by a blank line.
You can import one UTF-8 TXT, CSV, JSON, XML, HTML or Markdown file up to 1 MB. Text-based formats are read literally: importing HTML counts its markup too. For a PDF or Word document, obtain plain text first. Sample and Import replace the current source; Clear empties it.
Use the exact example input
Clear writing helps people understand. Clear writing gives every idea room to breathe. Read your draft aloud. Keep useful words, remove clutter, and make your next sentence count.
Save important work before refreshing or closing the page. Counting happens in your browser, and the editor does not keep a persistent draft.
Set a goal, pace and phrase length
In Settings, change Writing goal from its initial 500 words to 50. Set Reading speed to 180 and Speaking speed to 120 words per minute. These are example choices: the starting speeds are 200 and 130, and you can choose 40–1,000 words per minute for either estimate.
Under Words that stand out, set Phrase length to 2 words. Leave Hide common English words checked and Match case unchecked. The word goal does not stop you at a limit, and timing controls change estimates without changing the source.
The verified draft has 28 words, leaving 22 to the 50-word goal. Reading is estimated at 10 seconds and speaking at 14 seconds. Times round up to a whole second; rehearse a real script because pauses, emphasis and the subject affect delivery.
The example in this guide
Verified with i2TEXT on November 11, 2026, using the settings shown.
- Draft
- 28 words / 180 characters
- Structure
- 4 sentences / 2 paragraphs
- Read / speak
- 10 sec / 14 sec
- Repeated phrase
- clear writing: 2 (8.3%)
Interpret the counts and patterns
The source produces 180 characters, 180 visible characters, 4 sentences, 2 paragraphs and 3 lines. The totals match here because the example uses ordinary single-code-point characters. In other text, a letter with a combining accent or a joined emoji may occupy several Unicode code points but one visible character. Characters includes whitespace; Without whitespace excludes spaces, tabs and line breaks.
Select the first sentence, Clear writing helps people understand. The selection line reports 5 words and 37 characters, while the dashboard keeps the whole-document totals. Sentence rhythm groups this draft into 3 short sentences, 1 medium sentence and no long sentences. The average is 7 words per sentence; those lengths describe the draft rather than grade its quality.
The phrase clear writing occurs twice. Its 8.3% share is 2 occurrences out of 24 eligible two-word positions inside sentences, not 2 out of 28 words. Phrases do not cross sentence boundaries. Hiding common words removes only phrases made entirely of listed common English words; it does not remove those positions from the percentage calculation.
The editor shows up to 10 frequency entries. The HTML report shows up to 15, and CSV or JSON up to 30. Match case changes frequency grouping; Unique words remains case-insensitive. Use repeated phrases as prompts for a deliberate edit, rather than automatically deleting every repetition.
Save the report or the original text
Choose View your report to capture a snapshot of the current source and statistics. Select a Report format and use the download icon. HTML report creates i2text-word-count-report.html, a standalone document with a print layout. Open it and choose Print in your browser if you need a PDF.
CSV spreadsheet is useful for rows of measurements and phrase frequencies; JSON data retains the full analysis fields and a creation timestamp. Original text downloads i2text-original-text.txt with the unchanged draft. The copy icon copies a concise statistical summary rather than the source text.
Use Back to editor to change the draft or settings, then create a fresh report to update the snapshot. Continue to passes the original source into a compatible next tool, so the next operation works on your words rather than a list of counts.
writing-draft.txti2text-word-count-report.html
Common questions
Why might a submission portal show a different word count?
Browsers and other editors can use different word boundaries, especially around punctuation, hyphens and languages without spaces. This counter uses Unicode segmentation when available. Treat the destination portal’s count as authoritative for its own limit.
Does the report include my writing goal?
The writing goal is an editor progress aid. The downloaded statistics contain counts, timing and phrase analysis; they do not include the goal. Original text is the separate option for keeping the complete source.
What happens with a very large file?
UTF-8 input is limited to 1,048,576 bytes. Background counting keeps larger passages responsive. If that feature is unavailable in your browser, the fallback accepts up to 100 KB. An oversized input is rejected rather than silently shortened.
Review your next draft with Word Counter
Use your own source and review the result before sharing.
