Count words, characters, sentences and reading time as you type — with an essay goal tracker, a repetition hunter and draft autosave. Free, no signup, and your text never leaves this browser tab.
Researched by PDFBuddyFree Team · Last updated October 23, 2026 · Data: in-browser processing
Sample text loaded — replace it with your essay.
The sample text in the counter above is 112 words. At university reading speed (200 wpm), that is about 34 seconds of reading — a single introduction-length block. Scale it up:
| Essay length | Reading time (200 wpm) | Speaking time (130 wpm) |
|---|---|---|
| 500 words | 2 min 30 sec | 3 min 51 sec |
| 1,000 words | 5 min | 7 min 42 sec |
| 2,000 words | 10 min | 15 min 23 sec |
| 3,000 words | 15 min | 23 min 5 sec |
The "±10% rule" used by most UK and US universities means a 1,000-word target accepts 900–1,100 words — set the goal tracker to the exact number in your brief and watch the over/under line.
Most word-counter sites look identical, but the architectures differ:
| Approach | Your text leaves the device? | Account needed? |
|---|---|---|
| PDFBuddyFree (this tool) | No — counted locally | No |
| Server-side counters | Yes — sent to a server for "processing" | Sometimes |
| Grammar/AI writing apps | Yes — and stored for "improving the product" | Yes |
For unpublished coursework, local counting is the only architecture that cannot leak. Server-based tools and AI writing apps keep copies of what you paste — check their privacy policies before submitting a thesis draft anywhere.
Yes — unlimited counting, the goal tracker and draft autosave, forever. No trial, no account, no word limits. Your essay text is counted in your browser, so there is nothing to meter.
No. Everything you type stays in this browser tab. The draft autosave uses your device's own local storage — we never see a single word of your essay.
Pick your assignment's word target — 250, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 or a custom number — and the progress bar shows your percentage, how many words remain, or how far over the goal you are.
Any token containing a letter or digit, separated by spaces. Numbers, hyphenated words and apostrophes (don't, state-of-the-art) each count as one word — matching how most universities and journals count.
At 200 words per minute — the standard adult reading speed used by publishers. Speaking time uses 130 words per minute, the average pace for presentations and speeches.
Paste your text directly, or use the free Extract Text from PDF tool on this site to pull clean text out of a PDF first. For scanned pages or a full PDF-to-Word conversion, see the partner option below — browser tools cannot do real OCR well.
Repetition hunting: if 'very', 'really' or a pet phrase dominates the list, your marker will notice too. Scan the top-10 list, then vary or cut the overused ones before submitting.
Your draft autosaves to this device about a second after you stop typing, and it is restored when you return on the same browser. It never leaves your device — but it also does not sync between devices, so keep a backup for long essays.
Counting method: whitespace tokenization; a token counts as a word if it contains a letter or digit. Reading speed 200 wpm and speaking speed 130 wpm are standard publisher baselines. The ±10% word-count tolerance is the common UK/US university convention — always follow your own brief. Researched by PDFBuddyFree Team · Last updated October 23, 2026.
Fit your essay under portal size limits before submitting.
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