Article Word Counter with Reading Time

Paste an article to see its word count, character count, sentence and paragraph counts and reading time. Useful when writing to a commissioned length or checking a piece against a publication's brief.

Article lengths by type

News writing is short by design. A straight news report runs 300 to 600 words, because the structure puts the essential facts in the first paragraph and everything after it is detail that can be cut from the bottom if space runs out. That inverted-pyramid convention exists precisely so that length is adjustable at the last minute.

Feature writing is a different form and runs 1,000 to 3,000 words, sometimes far more for long-form magazine pieces. The structure is narrative rather than front-loaded, so cutting from the bottom does not work and an over-length feature has to be genuinely rewritten.

Opinion columns are usually commissioned at a fixed length, commonly 600 to 900 words, and editors mean it — column inches are allocated in advance.

  • News report — 300 to 600 words
  • Feature — 1,000 to 3,000 words
  • Opinion column — usually 600 to 900, fixed
  • Long-form magazine feature — 3,000 words and up

Sentence and paragraph length

Journalism runs shorter sentences than academic or corporate writing, typically 15 to 20 words on average, and paragraphs of one to three sentences. The single-sentence paragraph is a legitimate device rather than an error, and it exists because narrow newspaper columns made long paragraphs unreadable.

This counter reports sentence and paragraph counts alongside the word count, which makes the averages easy to check. If your average sentence is running past 25 words, the piece will read as heavier than you intended regardless of its total length.

Writing to a commissioned length

Editors ask for a word count because the space is already allocated. Coming in ten per cent under is usually fine; coming in forty per cent over means someone else does the cutting, and they will cut differently from how you would.

If a piece genuinely needs more room than the brief, that is a conversation to have before filing rather than a decision to make silently in the draft.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a news article be?

300 to 600 words for a straight news report. The inverted-pyramid structure puts the essentials first so the piece can be cut from the bottom without losing the story.

How long is a feature article?

1,000 to 3,000 words typically, and considerably more for long-form magazine work. Unlike news, a feature is built narratively, so an over-length draft has to be rewritten rather than trimmed from the end.

What is a good average sentence length?

15 to 20 words for journalism. Past about 25 the piece reads as heavy, whatever its total length. This tool reports sentence and paragraph counts so you can check the average.

How long does 800 words take to read?

Three to four minutes at typical reading speeds of 200 to 250 words a minute. Reading on screen sits at the slower end of that range.

Is my article stored anywhere?

No. Everything is counted in the browser and nothing is transmitted or saved, so an unfiled draft stays private.

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