PDF Word Counter
Count the words, characters and paragraphs of any PDF, Word or TXT file right in your browser. Your file never gets uploaded to a server.
Drop your PDF here or click to select it
PDF, DOCX or TXT · 10 MB max · nothing gets uploaded
View extracted text
How to count words in a PDF
Drag your PDF into the upload area or click to pick it from your device. Word documents (DOCX) and plain text files (TXT) work too.
Wait a few seconds while your browser extracts the text. All the work happens on your own machine: counting words in a PDF does not require uploading it anywhere.
Read the statistics: words, characters with and without spaces, paragraphs, sentences and reading time. To review or reuse the content, open “View extracted text” and copy it in one click.
Your PDF never leaves your device
This PDF word counter processes the file entirely in your browser: the document never leaves your device. That is the key difference from most similar tools, which first upload your PDF to their servers and analyse it there.
Why does that matter? Many of the documents that need a word count are exactly the most sensitive ones: contracts, unpublished theses, internal reports, manuscripts or translations under NDA. With this tool you can count the words of a confidential PDF with the same peace of mind as opening it in your own PDF reader — because technically, that is what happens.
The first time you load a file, the browser downloads the PDF (or Word) reading module, and from then on everything is local. Try it yourself: load the page, disconnect from the internet and drop the file. The count works just the same.
Which files can I count?
The star format. It extracts the text from any PDF with a text layer: lecture notes, ebooks, academic papers, contracts or reports. Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first.
Word (DOCX)
Need a Word word counter without opening Word? Drag in the DOCX directly. Handy when someone sends you a document and you just need its length, or you are on a device without Office installed.
Plain text (TXT)
TXT files are read instantly. If your text lives somewhere else or you just want to paste it, use the main word counter, which analyses as you type.
Limits: scanned PDFs and OCR
Let’s be honest about the main limitation: scanned PDFs cannot be counted. A scan is a photograph of the page; even though you see letters, the file contains no text, only pixels. No word counter can extract what isn’t there.
The fix is to run the document through OCR (optical character recognition) software, which turns the image into real text. Many scanners and mobile apps include it out of the box. A quick way to check whether your PDF has a text layer: try selecting a sentence with your mouse. If you can select and copy it, this tool will count it without a problem.
Counting words in Word and Google Docs
If you work inside Word or Google Docs, both include native counters (Word shows it in the status bar; Docs with Ctrl+Shift+C). This tool shines when the document reaches you already exported as a PDF, or when you don’t want to open an editor just to check one figure. For turning counts into pages, see our guide on how many pages is 1,000 words.