Sentence counter
Count the sentences in your text and check each one's words and characters, with long ones highlighted.
Every line break ends a sentence, even without a period. Highlighting only measures length; it doesn't check your grammar. It all runs in your browser: your text is never uploaded.
Example input and result
Dr. Smith arrived. He waved. One unfinished fragment
Result
Sentences: 3 Words: 8 Average words per unit: 2.67 Longest unit (words): 3 No. Words Characters Sentences Text 1 3 18 1 Dr. Smith arrived. 2 2 9 1 He waved. 3 3 23 1 One unfinished fragment
How the sentence counter splits your text
Paste your text and the sentence counter splits it with your browser's language rules. A sentence ends at a period followed by a capital letter, at a question or exclamation mark, or at a line break. A final fragment with no period still counts, while a line holding only punctuation, like “...” or “???”, adds nothing.
The titles Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., Prof., Sr., Jr., and St. don't end a sentence. Try “Mrs. Brown met Mr. Gray on St. Patrick's Day. Ms. Lee came too.” and you get 2 sentences, the first one with 9 words. A time like “5 p.m.” followed by a lowercase word doesn't split the sentence either.
The sentence table and the full report
The totals come first: “Sentences”, “Words”, “Average words per unit”, which here means the average number of words per sentence, and “Longest unit (words)”. A table follows with one row per sentence, showing its number, its words, its characters, a Sentences column (normally 1), and the full text, so you can find the sentence you want to fix.
The table shows the first 200 sentences so the page stays responsive on a phone. “Copy result” and “Download TXT” include the full report for every sentence, with tabs between the columns, so you can paste it into a spreadsheet and sort the rows by length to see your longest sentences first.
Highlight sentences that run too long
Under “More options”, “Highlight sentences longer than (words)” marks every row in the table that goes past that number. It starts at 25 and takes anything from 1 to 1,000. Only sentences past the number count: at 25, a sentence of 25 words stays plain and one of 26 gets highlighted.
Take “Today was a good day. We went to the movies with my cousins and then we had tacos at a place my aunt recommended, because she always knows the best spots in town and never misses. Then we went home.” The middle sentence has 31 words and gets highlighted. Put a period after “tacos”, start the next sentence with “My aunt recommended the place”, and both halves read better out loud.
When the sentence count looks wrong
The counter gets most texts right, but a few patterns split a sentence where you don't expect it or keep together what you meant to separate. If a number looks odd, scan the table: each row shows where one sentence ends, so you can spot the cause in a few seconds and decide whether it matters.
- Titles outside the list: “We met Lt. Dan at the base.” counts as 2, and so does a sentence with “Gen.” or “Rev.” before a name
- Marks inside quotes: in
She said "Stop!" and ran.the ! ends a sentence even though a lowercase word follows - Ellipses: “Wait... what?” stays one sentence, but “Wait... What?” becomes two
- Lists: each line counts as a sentence, even a bare “1.” or a short bullet
- Abbreviations like “etc.” or “p.m.” followed by a capital close the sentence, which matches how they're written at the end of one
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a sentence?
Any stretch of text that ends at a period followed by a capital, at a question or exclamation mark, or at a line break, as long as it holds a letter or a number. Titles like Mr. and Dr. don't end a sentence. The counter doesn't check grammar, so a fragment counts too.
Does a sentence without a final period count?
Yes. If your text ends without punctuation, that last stretch counts as a sentence as long as it has letters or numbers. The same goes for every line: a line break closes the sentence even when there's no period at the end of it.
How long should a sentence be?
There's no fixed rule. The counter starts at 25 words as a reference for flagging long ones, and you can change it under “More options” to match your teacher's or editor's guideline. Mixing short and long sentences tends to make a text easier to follow.
Do questions and exclamations count as sentences?
Yes. A question mark or an exclamation mark ends a sentence the same way a period does, so “Are you coming? Of course!” counts as two. Closing quotes or brackets right after the mark stay attached to the sentence they close.
Is there a length limit?
The box takes up to 50,000 characters, which is several pages of text. If you paste something longer, only what fits stays in the box, so the count covers that first part. Split long documents into sections and add the results together.