Ctrl K

Count specific characters or words

Enter what you are looking for, a letter, a word or a whole phrase, and see how many times it occurs in your text, with every match highlighted. The search happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

0 times found
Characters (with spaces)
0
Characters without spaces
0
Words
0
Lines
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0
Reading time
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Speaking time
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Most used characters

    Found in your text

    How it works

    1. Paste your text

      Type or paste your text in the box, or open a .txt file.

    2. Counted straight away

      Characters, words, lines, sentences and paragraphs are counted as you type.

    3. Read the result

      The estimated reading and speaking time are shown too.

    How it works

    Type the character or text in Search for and the number of hits appears in large type. Two options refine it:

    • Match case: A and a are counted separately.
    • Whole words only: the won't be counted inside other.

    Example

    In The other cat, the Thin one. THE end. the search the gives 4 hits: The, the middle of other, the and THE. With Whole words only it is 3. The ten most used characters are t, e, h, n and so on, with their counts.

    Letter frequencies

    The matches are highlighted in a copy of your text, and the list of your ten most used characters shows the letter frequencies at a glance. Spaces aren't included in that list. This is also how you spot the most common letter in a cipher, for example in a Caesar cipher text.

    Below you'll also find the usual totals: characters, words, lines, sentences and reading time. For a simple count, see the character counter and the word counter. To replace what you found, use find and replace.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is the search case-sensitive?

    Not by default: `the`, `The` and `THE` all match. Tick *Match case* to count them separately.

    What does "Whole words only" change?

    It skips matches inside longer words. In `The other cat, the Thin one. THE end.` the search `the` finds 4 matches, including the one inside `other`; with whole words only it finds 3.

    Which characters are in the top-ten list?

    The ten most frequent characters, ignoring spaces and, unless you tick *Match case*, also capitals. The list shows letters, digits and punctuation, each with its count.

    Can I count a phrase or a line break?

    Yes, enter a whole phrase such as `of the`. A line break itself cannot be typed in the field; use the [line counter](/en/text/line-counter) for that.