Paragraph Counter
Count paragraphs instantly and see how many words each one has, so you can balance long blocks of text and keep pages easy to scan.
What does the Paragraph Counter do?
The Paragraph Counter counts the paragraphs in your text and shows a bar for each paragraph’s word count. It also shows the average, shortest and longest paragraph, and how many paragraphs contain only one sentence. Paragraphs over 150 words are highlighted.
How to use it
- Paste your text or open a document.
- Check the paragraph total and the average words per paragraph.
- Scan the bars to spot paragraphs that are much longer than the rest.
How paragraphs are counted
A paragraph is a block of text that ends with a line break. Empty lines, and lines containing only spaces, are ignored, so it does not matter whether you separate paragraphs with one blank line or several.
If your text uses a single line break inside a paragraph (for example, a poem or an address), each line is counted as its own paragraph. Text copied from some PDFs also has line breaks at the end of every line; join those lines before counting for an accurate result.
How long should a paragraph be?
There is no fixed rule. Academic paragraphs are often 100 to 200 words because each one develops a single point with evidence. On the web, shorter paragraphs of about 40 to 80 words are easier to read on phones. A mix of lengths keeps text readable; a page made only of very long or very short paragraphs is harder to follow.
Example
Three paragraphs of 60, 45 and 120 words give a total of 225 words and an average of 75 words per paragraph. The third bar stands out, which suggests it could be split.
Frequently asked questions
Do blank lines count as paragraphs?
No. Empty lines are ignored.
Why does my PDF show too many paragraphs?
Many PDFs store a line break at the end of each line. Each line is then counted as a paragraph. Join the lines in a word processor, or paste the original document instead.
Can I count paragraphs in a Word document?
Yes. Click Open file and choose the .docx or .doc file. Each paragraph in the document becomes a paragraph here; table cells are counted separately.
Is there a limit on how much text I can paste?
There is no set limit. Very long documents may take a moment to update on slower devices.