How to Count Words in Google Docs (All Methods)

The keyboard shortcut

The fastest way to check word count in Google Docs:

• Windows / Linux: Ctrl + Shift + C
• Mac: Cmd + Shift + C

This opens the Word Count dialog showing: words, characters (with spaces), characters (without spaces), and pages. Close it with Escape or by clicking anywhere outside the dialog.

You can also access it via the menu: Tools → Word count.

Live word count in the toolbar

If you're writing toward a target word count, a live count that updates as you type is more useful than opening the dialog repeatedly.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + C (or Tools → Word count)
2. In the dialog, check the box: "Display word count while typing"
3. Click OK

A small word count display appears in the bottom-left corner of the document, next to the page count. It updates in real time as you type. Click on it to toggle between showing words, characters with spaces, and characters without spaces.

Count words for a selection only

To count words in a specific section (a paragraph, a heading, a portion of the document):

1. Select the text you want to count
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + C

The Word Count dialog will show the count for the selected text. The dialog title changes from "Word count" to "Word count (selection)" to confirm you're counting selected text only.

What Google Docs word count includes (and what it doesn't)

Google Docs counts words in the main body of the document. It does NOT count words in:

• Headers and footers
• Footnotes (unless you specifically select and count them)
• Comments and suggestions in the margin
• Text inside charts or drawings embedded in the doc

For essays, this matters: if your assignment has a word limit that includes footnotes, you need to count them separately. Select the footnote text, check the count, and add it to the main body count.

Getting character count and reading time

Google Docs shows character count (with and without spaces) in the Word Count dialog. What it doesn't show:

• Reading time estimate
• Sentence count
• Average word length
• Paragraph count
• Flesch reading ease score

For these, select all (Ctrl+A), copy, and paste into the free word counter. It shows all of these metrics instantly, no account needed.

Reading time is useful for blog posts (tell readers how long an article takes to read), speeches (know if your speech fits your time slot), and academic writing (estimate how long a review committee spends reading your submission).

Character counts for specific limits

If you're writing content with character limits (meta descriptions, tweets, SMS messages, LinkedIn bios), the word counter is more useful than Google Docs for this:

Word count targets for common writing tasks

Knowing if your document is the right length matters for most professional writing contexts:

Related tools

• Free Word Counter — reading time, character count, sentence count, and more

Written by Achraf A., founder of TheFreeAITools.