Our word counter uses advanced algorithms to accurately count words across multiple languages. It defines a word as a sequence of characters separated by spaces or punctuation. The tool handles complex cases including hyphenated words, abbreviations, and special characters. For academic or professional requirements that may have specific word-counting rules (such as counting hyphenated words as one or two words), we recommend verifying the count against your specific guidelines.

Character count with spaces includes every character in your text, including letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and all white space characters (spaces, tabs, line breaks). Character count without spaces excludes all white space characters, counting only the visible characters. The "without spaces" count is often used for SMS messages, Twitter posts, and certain types of data entry where space characters aren't counted toward character limits.

Our tool identifies sentences by looking for ending punctuation marks (periods, exclamation points, question marks) followed by a space or the end of the text. It's designed to handle common abbreviations and special cases to avoid false sentence breaks. However, for very complex text with numerous abbreviations or unconventional punctuation, there might be slight variations in the count. The algorithm ensures at least one sentence is counted for any non-empty text, even if ending punctuation is missing.

While our word counter is primarily a web-based tool, it includes a robust client-side fallback mechanism that allows basic functionality even when your internet connection is intermittent. For fully offline use, we recommend using the tool once while online, as modern browsers may cache the page, allowing limited functionality offline. However, for guaranteed offline access, desktop applications like Microsoft Word, Google Docs (with offline mode enabled), or specialized writing software would be more suitable alternatives.

Our word counter has a 10,000 character limit to ensure optimal performance across all devices and browsers. This limit accommodates most common writing tasks, including essays, blog posts, and short articles. For analyzing longer documents, we recommend breaking the text into sections and analyzing each section separately, or using specialized document processing software for very large manuscripts or books. The character limit helps maintain fast, responsive analysis without browser performance issues.