How many words are in this paragraph?
Separate paragraphs with a blank line so they are counted separately. Need more (speaking time, bigger editor)? Open the full Word Counter.
Paste your text into the box above and the numbers update as you type. It counts words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs with the same rules as our full Word Counter, and nothing is uploaded. The rest of this page explains how long a paragraph usually is.
There is no fixed number. A paragraph is one idea, and its length follows the idea and the reader. As a working guide, school and university essays usually use paragraphs of about 100 to 200 words, often three to eight sentences. Writing for the web and for email runs shorter, often 40 to 80 words, because people read on small screens. A one-sentence paragraph is fine when it carries a single point you want to stand out.
Typical paragraph lengths
- Academic essay body paragraph: roughly 100 to 200 words. The introduction and conclusion are often a little shorter.
- Blog post or article online: roughly 40 to 100 words, two to four sentences.
- Email or cover letter: roughly 30 to 80 words, so the reader can scan it quickly.
- News writing: often one or two sentences per paragraph.
These are habits, not rules. If your teacher or style guide gives a number, follow that number instead.
How many paragraphs is 500 or 1,000 words?
Divide the total by the paragraph length you are aiming for. At 100 to 150 words per paragraph, 250 words is about two paragraphs, 500 words is about three to five, 1,000 words is about seven to ten, and 1,500 words is about ten to fifteen. A five-paragraph essay of 500 words therefore averages 100 words per paragraph. With shorter web paragraphs of about 60 words, the same 500 words becomes eight or nine paragraphs.
Reading time is another way to judge length. The counter uses 238 words per minute for silent reading and 130 for speaking aloud, so a 150-word paragraph reads in about 38 seconds and takes a little over a minute to say.
How the counter counts, so you can trust the numbers
We checked these rules against the live tool, and it helps to know them when your total looks off by a few:
- Words are anything separated by spaces or line breaks. A hyphenated word such as well-known counts as one word, and so does a contraction such as don't.
- A dash with spaces on both sides, as in this — example, is counted as a word on its own. Remove the spaces around the dash if that matters for a strict limit.
- Paragraphs are separated by a blank line. Two blocks of text with only a single line break between them count as one paragraph, so add an empty line between paragraphs when you paste.
- Sentences are split at full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, so abbreviations such as e.g. or U.S. and decimals such as 3.5 make the sentence count higher than the real number. The word count is not affected.
- Chinese and Japanese text written without spaces is counted as one word per run. Use the character count for those languages.
Is my paragraph too long?
Paste one paragraph at a time and look at the words and the sentences together. More than about 200 words or eight sentences in an essay usually means two ideas are sharing one paragraph; find the sentence where the topic turns and start a new paragraph there. On the web, anything taller than your phone screen deserves a second look. Very short paragraphs one after another can feel choppy in an essay, so join two that make the same point.
Count the words in a paragraph
- Open the Word Counter and paste one paragraph, or your whole text with a blank line between paragraphs.
- Read the Words and Paragraphs totals; divide words by paragraphs for your average paragraph length.
- Edit in your document, then paste again to re-check against your limit.
Related tools and guides
FAQ
- How many words should a paragraph have?
- For essays, about 100 to 200 words is common; for web pages and emails, about 40 to 80. There is no fixed rule, so follow your assignment or style guide when it gives a number.
- How many sentences are in a paragraph?
- Usually three to eight in an essay and two to four online. One-sentence paragraphs are fine for emphasis.
- How many paragraphs is 500 words?
- About three to five paragraphs at 100 to 150 words each, or eight to nine short web paragraphs of about 60 words.
- Why does the counter show one paragraph when I have two?
- It separates paragraphs at blank lines. If your paragraphs are separated by a single line break, add an empty line between them.
- Does a hyphenated word count as one word?
- Yes. The counter splits on spaces, so well-known counts as one word. A dash with spaces around it counts as its own word.
- Is my text uploaded?
- No. The counting runs in your browser as you type.