Markdown Word Count & Reading Time
Paste any Markdown document to instantly count words, characters, paragraphs, headings, and links — and get an accurate reading-time estimate. Free, browser-based, no signup.
How reading time is calculated
Reading time is estimated at 238 words per minute — the average adult reading speed for online content according to Brysbaert et al. (2019). The word counter strips Markdown syntax (heading markers, bold/italic delimiters, link brackets, image syntax) before counting, so you get a count of actual prose rather than raw markup characters.
What each stat means
- Words — word count after stripping Markdown syntax
- Min read — estimated reading time in minutes, rounded up
- Characters / Chars (no spaces) — raw character counts of the full Markdown source
- Sentences — approximate count based on sentence-ending punctuation
- Paragraphs — blocks of text separated by blank lines, excluding headings and code blocks
- Headings — lines starting with one or more
#characters - Links —
[text](url)style links (not counting images) - Images —
style image references - Code blocks — fenced code blocks using triple backticks or tildes
Common use cases
- Blog posts — generate accurate "X min read" estimates for article headers before publishing
- Documentation review — gauge how much reading a doc change requires when reviewing a PR
- Content guidelines — verify posts meet minimum word-count requirements before submitting
- SEO planning — long-form articles (1,200+ words) tend to rank better; confirm scope before publishing
- Technical writing — scope editing work before estimating turnaround time
Related tools
- Markdown Live Editor — write and preview Markdown in real time
- Markdown to PDF — export your document as a clean, printable PDF
- YAML Frontmatter Editor — edit Jekyll, Hugo, or Docusaurus metadata
- Markdown Diff — compare two versions of a document to see what changed
- Markdown syntax highlighting guide — add language-aware code block highlighting