How to use the sentence counter
- Paste or type your text in the box. The counts update as you type.
- Read the totals: sentences, words, paragraphs, lines and characters.
- Check the average sentence length and the long sentences. Set your own limit if 25 words is not right for you.
- Scroll the sentence list to find the shaded long sentences and split them.
- For a list, poem or subtitle file, tick "Count each line as a sentence".
How long should a sentence be?
There is no fixed rule, but most plain-English style guides aim for an average of 15 to 20 words. Readers start to lose the thread somewhere past 25 to 30 words. Mixing short and long sentences keeps writing lively, so the goal is a sensible average with only a few long ones, not every sentence at the same length.
| Average words per sentence | How it usually reads |
|---|---|
| Under 8 | Very short. Can feel choppy in an essay, fine for slides and ads. |
| 8 to 20 | Easy to read. Good for blogs, emails and most school work. |
| 21 to 25 | Getting heavy. Common in academic and legal writing. |
| Over 25 | Hard work for most readers. Split the longest sentences first. |
Example
Frequently asked questions
Why is my sentence count different from another tool?
Tools treat abbreviations, decimals, ellipses and line breaks differently. This counter keeps decimals, initials and common short forms inside a sentence and ends a sentence at a blank line. If you need one line to equal one sentence, tick the line option.
Does it count Hindi sentences?
Yes. The Hindi danda (।) ends a sentence, and words in Devanagari are counted like any other words.
How are paragraphs and lines counted?
A paragraph is a block of text separated by at least one empty line. Lines are all non-empty lines, so a paragraph that wraps over several typed lines counts as one paragraph but several lines.
What is a good number of sentences per paragraph?
For web writing, two to four sentences per paragraph is easy to scan on a phone. School and academic paragraphs are often longer, around four to eight sentences.
Is my text saved or uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you paste leaves your device.