In Microsoft Word on Windows or Mac, click the word count in the status bar; Word then shows the number of characters along with paragraphs and lines. In Google Docs, choose Tools > Word count, or press Ctrl+Shift+C (⌘+Shift+C on a Mac), to see the character count. In both programs, select text first if you want the count for only part of the document.

Microsoft Word on Windows

  1. Look at the status bar. Word counts words as you type and shows the running total there.
  2. Click that word count. Microsoft's instructions are to find the number of characters, paragraphs and lines "by clicking on the word count in the status bar".
  3. To count part of a document, select it first. The status bar then shows the word count for the selection and for the whole document.

After selecting text, check that the character figure you are reading belongs to the selection and not to the full document. Microsoft's page describes the selection behavior only for the word count.

Microsoft Word on Mac

  1. Click the word count in the status bar to open the Word Count box.
  2. Read the figures under Statistics. Unless you have selected some text, Word counts all the text in the document, characters included.
  3. To count part of the document, select the text, then choose Tools > Word Count.

Word for the web

Word for the web counts words while you type. If you do not see the word count at the bottom of the window, Microsoft's page says to make sure you are in Editing view. The display is switched on and off with Review > Word Count and the Show Word Count checkbox.

That page gives no steps for seeing a character count in Word for the web; it covers words only. If you need a character count and have only the web version, open the document in the desktop app or copy the text into a character counter.

What Word's figures include

Microsoft's support page does not say whether the character count includes spaces, or whether footnotes, endnotes and text boxes are part of it. Two things can be said from Microsoft's developer reference for Word:

  • Word computes two character statistics, described there as "Count of characters" and "Count of characters including spaces". If the box in front of you shows two character figures, the labels tell you which is which. The difference between them is covered in character count with and without spaces.
  • Footnotes and endnotes are optional. The programming method that computes the statistics takes a setting to include them, and that setting is off unless it is turned on. The reference does not describe what the Word Count box does by default.

So before you rely on a number from Word, look at what the Word Count box on your version shows, including any option for footnotes, endnotes or text boxes. If the document has footnotes, the simplest check is to add a short footnote to a test document and see whether the character count changes.

Google Docs on a computer

  1. Open the document and choose Tools > Word count. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows and ChromeOS, and ⌘+Shift+C on a Mac.
  2. The window shows the count of words, characters and pages. Click Done to close it.
  3. For a running count, check Display word count while typing in the same window and click OK. A word count box appears at the bottom left. Click it to display Pages, Words, Characters and Characters without spaces.
  4. To hide the box again, click it and choose Hide word count.

Google states the scope plainly: unless you select a section of the document, the word count applies to everything except headers, footers and footnotes. The feature exists only in Google Docs, not in Sheets or Slides.

Google Docs on Android, iPhone and iPad

  1. Open the Google Docs app and open a document.
  2. Tap More.
  3. Tap Word count to see Words, Characters and Characters excluding spaces.

The same scope applies: headers, footers and footnotes are left out unless you select a part of the document. Word count is not available for a document opened in Microsoft Office Compatibility Mode.

Why Word, Docs and a web counter can disagree

Paste the same essay into Word, Google Docs and a web-based counter and you may get three slightly different character counts. The usual reasons:

Different text is in scope. Google Docs leaves out headers, footers and footnotes. Word's support page says it counts all text in the document but does not mention footnotes, endnotes or text boxes. A web counter counts exactly what you paste, which depends on what you selected and copied.

Spaces. One figure includes them and another does not. Compare like with like.

Line breaks. A plain-text counter such as the Character Counter on this site counts every line break as a character, because it is one in the text you would paste into a form. Neither help page says whether Word or Google Docs counts paragraph breaks as characters. A ten-paragraph statement has at least nine of them, enough to matter near a limit.

Emoji and accented letters. This site counts each visible character once, so an emoji is 1. Neither help page says which unit Word or Google Docs uses, and software that counts in UTF-16 code units reports 2 for most emoji. The guide on what counts as a character explains the units.

Invisible characters. Non-breaking spaces and other characters you cannot see travel with copied text and are counted wherever they land. See how line breaks, tabs and spaces affect the count.

A two-minute calibration

Because the two open questions are not documented, test them. In a new, empty document:

  1. Type ab, press Enter, type cd, and read the character count including spaces. A result of 4 means line breaks are not counted. A result of 5 means they are.
  2. Delete everything, insert a single 🙂 and read the count. It will normally be 1 or 2.

Run the same two tests in any other counter you use. Once you know how each one treats line breaks and emoji, you can reconcile their totals for a real document.

Which count to trust

  • A limit enforced by a web form. The form's own counter decides. Use your word processor to draft, then confirm in the form. The reasons a form can differ from an editor are covered in how character limits work in online forms.
  • A limit checked by a person using Word or Docs. Use the same program they do, on the same selection, and give the figure from the row they asked for.
  • A document with footnotes. Find out whether notes count toward the limit, then make the tool match: select only the body text, or include the notes.
  • Plain text headed somewhere else. If the text will be pasted into a post, a message or a database field, count the plain text itself. The counter on this site also shows UTF-8 bytes and UTF-16 code units, which some technical limits are written in. It runs entirely in your browser, and your text is not uploaded.