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Sentence Counter
Count sentences in any text and see how long they are on average — a quick readability check for anything you write.
Runs entirely in your browser — your text is never uploaded
- Sentences
- 0
- Words
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Avg / sentence
- 0
words
How to use Sentence Counter
- Paste your text.
- Review sentence count, average length and the longest sentence.
- Shorten anything flagged as long to improve readability.
Examples
Input
Two short sentences.
Result
2 sentences, average 3 words
Input
A dense paragraph
Result
Average over 25 words per sentence — consider splitting
What you can type into Sentence Counter
- Your text
- Paste or type any length of text. Counts update as you type and nothing is uploaded.
How the results behave
- How a sentence is detected
- A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space or line break. A final sentence without punctuation still counts.
- Average and longest
- Alongside the count you get the average words per sentence and the longest sentence itself, so you can see exactly which one to break up.
Tips
- An average of roughly 15–20 words per sentence reads comfortably for general audiences; consistently higher is worth revising.
- Use the longest-sentence readout as an editing target rather than the average — one 60-word sentence does more damage than a high average.
Common mistakes
- Pasting text with abbreviations such as e.g. or Dr. and expecting an exact count; each full stop looks like a sentence end.
- Assuming a low average means clear writing. Short sentences can still be vague.
About the sentence counter
Students trimming an abstract or summary to a sentence limit, editors checking sentence length for readability, and anyone rewriting text that feels heavy to read.
Average sentence length is one of the strongest readability signals. Most plain-English guidance suggests aiming for 15 to 20 words on average, with variety between short and long sentences.
This tool highlights your longest sentence because a single sprawling sentence often does more damage to comprehension than a slightly high average.
Accuracy and limitations
- Detection is punctuation-based, so decimals, abbreviations, ellipses and initials can split a sentence in two, and a sentence ending in a quotation mark or bracket may be joined to the next. Check the figure by eye on text that is heavy with abbreviations.
Frequently asked questions
How do you detect a sentence?
Text is split on full stops, question marks and exclamation marks followed by whitespace. Abbreviations such as e.g. can cause small over-counts.
What is a good average?
For general audiences, 15 to 20 words per sentence reads comfortably.
Read more
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