↵LinesEvery line, empty ones included, so it is never smaller than the paragraph count. Three blocks with one blank line between each show 5 lines and 3 paragraphs. A line break left at the very end of the text adds one more line, because the cursor can stand on it. These are the lines a line break ends, not the ones a narrow screen wraps.
¶ParagraphsLines that hold text, the rule a word processor uses. A line of only spaces or tabs is empty, and a line break left at the end of the text adds nothing. A line filled with an invisible character that is not a space, such as U+2800 Braille pattern blank, does count. Text pasted with a hard break at the end of every line counts one paragraph per line: an e-mail of 2 paragraphs wrapped over five lines shows 5.
.?!SentencesThe browser's sentence rules for English, read a second time with the page's own. A full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark ends a sentence, and so does every line end, so a heading with no full stop counts as one. Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Prof. and St. do not end a sentence, and neither do the ranks and offices this page adds, such as Gen., Capt., Sen. and Rev. The same goes for U.S., a.m. and p.m., an initial before a name, a decimal point, a list number, and three dots followed by a small letter. A run such as ?! or !!! ends one sentence, not three. Two known misses: a sentence that really ends in p.m. is joined to the next one, and a question inside quotation marks counts as a sentence of its own even when the writer carries on with she asked.
Length 2
AaCharactersEverything in the box: letters, digits, punctuation, spaces and line breaks. A line break counts as one character, and a Windows line end, which is stored as two, counts as one as well. An accented letter or an emoji with a skin tone counts as the one character the eye sees, however many pieces it is stored as.
abWordsAnything between two spaces that holds a letter or a digit, the convention of word processors. A hyphen or an apostrophe does not split a word, so well-known and don't are one each, and so are 4.5 and 1,200. A long dash typed without spaces does split. A bullet dash standing alone is not a word, so a list counts only what it lists. Hard line breaks leave this count alone: an e-mail of 20 words wrapped over five lines is 20 words before and after its lines are joined.
How it works
This paragraph counter shows how many paragraphs a text holds as you type. It opens on a five-paragraph essay outline that reads 5 paragraphs, 15 sentences, 114 words, 616 characters and 9 lines.
Read the full guide
What counts as a paragraph
Every line that holds some text is one paragraph. Blank lines are ignored, so three blocks are 3 paragraphs whether one blank line, four or none stand between them. A heading is a paragraph, and so is each item of a list. Lines counts the blank ones too: those three blocks with a blank line between each show 5 lines.
A brief asks for five paragraphs? Open More options and put 5 in Limit for paragraphs.
Headings, captions and a signature count as paragraphs. To count the body of an essay only, paste the body only.
Questions and answers
How many sentences are in a paragraph?
There is no fixed number: a paragraph has no minimum and no max amount, and one sentence can make one. To count yours, paste it alone and read Sentences. The sample’s five hold 3, 4, 2, 3 and 3, an average of 3.
How long is a paragraph?
As long as one idea needs: nothing fixes how long it should be. The Writing Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill describes a paragraph as a unit formed by a group of sentences or by one sentence, whatever its length.
How many words are in a paragraph?
It varies, and this page quotes no average for writing in general. Paste a paragraph and read Words. The sample’s five run from 17 to 27 words: 114 in all, about 23 words per paragraph.
How do I count the paragraphs on a page?
Paste the page and read Paragraphs. If the number is much too high, the text breaks at every line end: run remove line breaks first. To check one paragraph against a limit you were given, paste it alone.