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Words · chars · reading time · 12 stats

Markdown Word Counter

Counts words, characters, headings, paragraphs, and reading time in Markdown — strips fences, link URLs, and HTML before counting.

Markdown Word Counter
Words
0
content only
Characters
0
0 no-space
Reading
1 min
@ 200 wpm
Speaking
1 min
@ 130 wpm
0 B
input · markdown
output · stats
Words
0
Characters
0
Chars (no spaces)
0
Sentences
0
Paragraphs
0
Headings
0
Links
0
Images
0
Code blocks
0
List items
0
Reading time
1 min
Speaking time
1 min
Quick Start

How to count words in Markdown

Paste Markdown — get word counts, reading and speaking times, plus a structural breakdown.

  1. 01

    Paste Markdown

    Try a sample article with headings, lists, code, and links.

    Parsing runs through marked with GFM extensions enabled — tables, task lists, strikethrough, and fenced code blocks all match GitHub’s rendering.

    mdGFMmarkedCommonMarklive
    input · markdownmd · GFM
    # Title

A paragraph…
    loaded · GFMGFM · ready
  2. 02

    Reads stripped

    Code fences, image URLs, HTML and link targets are removed first.

    Soft-break behaviour is configurable: by default a single newline becomes a space (CommonMark), toggle on for chat-style <br> insertion.

    cleansoft-breaksoptionsconfiglive
    strip · optionsclean · live
    text only
    options applied · livelive
  3. 03

    12 stats

    Words, chars, headings, paragraphs, links, images, blocks, lists.

    The preview is scoped under a .mde class so its CSS doesn’t bleed into the rest of the page. Output HTML is whitespace-controlled for clean diffs.

    statspreviewscoped CSSrenderstable
    stats · rendered12 · ready
    Words: 142
Reading: 1 min
    rendered · liverendered
  4. 04

    Copy report

    Grab the full breakdown as plain text for tracking.

    Export covers both raw Markdown and rendered HTML; downloads stream as text/markdown or text/html via Blob + object URL.

    exportclipboard.md.htmlblob
    ✓ · exportedreport · done
    ✓ Copied report
    shipped · ready to shipsuccess
Pro tips

Author Markdown that renders everywhere

GFM is the safe default

GitHub-Flavored Markdown is the de-facto baseline (tables, task lists, strikethrough). CommonMark is stricter but ubiquitous as a fallback.

Soft-break behaviour varies

A single newline is a space in CommonMark, a <br> in GFM. Toggle soft breaks when source matters.

Escape inside code fences

Backticks inside fenced blocks need a longer fence — three becomes four. Use ~~~ if your content has many backticks.

Anchors are slugified

GitHub lowercases, strips punctuation, and joins with hyphens. Duplicate headings get -1, -2 suffixes.

Tables need a header row

The dash row sets alignment (:---, :-:, ---:). Use Table Aligner for diff-friendly columns.

Front matter is YAML

Triple-dash blocks at the top of files are parsed by static-site generators. Use the Front-Matter Validator to catch syntax errors.

Related toolsReadability ScoreMD to textEditorCheatsheetTOCREADME
Use Cases

When to count Markdown

Writers, devs, students.

Blog drafts

Hit a target length before publishing. Render path uses marked with GFM extensions enabled (tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks), so what you preview matches what GitHub publishes bit-for-bit. Soft-break behaviour is configurable for chat-style vs prose Markdown.

GFM-compliant

Tech talks

Estimate speaking time at 130 wpm. Pairs cleanly with the Markdown Cheatsheet for syntax you can't quite remember — callout blocks, footnotes, definition lists. Output stays diff-friendly so style-only changes don't drown out real edits in PRs.

GitHub-perfect

Newsletters

Reading time helps subscriber retention. Cross-platform safe: anchors, code fences, and tables behave identically on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Gitea. Heading-anchor slugs follow GitHub's lowercase-and-hyphenate rules so deep links survive a docs migration.

diff-friendly

README size

Sanity-check your repo's main doc. No server roundtrip — perfect for proprietary content you can't paste into a public tool. The full marked + GFM bundle ships with the page, so it works offline once loaded.

render-stable

Essays

Track progress towards a word target. Front matter (YAML / TOML / JSON) passes through unchanged so static-site pipelines (Jekyll, Hugo, Astro, Eleventy) read it correctly. Pair with the Front-Matter Validator to catch syntax errors before deploy.

cross-platform

Documentation audit

Find the longest pages in a docs site. Output is reproducible: identical input always produces identical Markdown, so doc-generation scripts can rely on it for snapshot tests and embedded into release workflows.

SEO-friendly
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Fenced code blocks, inline code, link/image URLs (kept link text), HTML tags, and Markdown punctuation.
Word count divided by 200 wpm — the typical adult silent-reading rate, rounded up.
130 wpm — typical clear-pace conference talk.
No — code blocks are stripped so counts reflect prose only.
No. Everything runs locally in your browser.
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