Free Sentence Counter

Count the Sentences in Your Text

Paste your text above and the sentence count appears straight away. Beside it you will see the number of words, the number of paragraphs, and your words per sentence, which is the average sentence length.

Sentence length is one of the quickest ways to judge how heavy a piece of writing feels. Text with very long sentences on average is harder to follow, and text with only very short ones can feel choppy. This page shows the average so you can see which way your draft leans.

How Sentences Are Counted

Counting sentences sounds simple until you meet "Dr. Smith went to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5." A full stop does not always end a sentence. This counter follows a small set of clear rules, so it behaves the same way in every browser:

• A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis that is followed by a space or the end of the text.
• A full stop followed by a lowercase letter does not end a sentence, so "etc. and" and "wait... what?" stay together.
• Common titles and abbreviations such as Mr., Mrs., Dr., Prof. and St. do not end a sentence.
• A single capital letter before a full stop, as in "J. R. R. Tolkien", is treated as an initial.
• Decimals such as 3.50 and web addresses such as example.com are not sentence breaks, because there is no space after the full stop.
• A numbered list marker at the start of a line, such as "1.", is not a sentence end.
• Chinese and Japanese sentence endings are recognized without needing a space.
• A line break followed by a capital letter, a number or a symbol starts a new sentence, so headings and bullet points count. A line that continues in lowercase is treated as the same sentence, so text that was wrapped by a PDF or an email program is not split in the middle.

No counter gets every case right. A sentence that ends with an abbreviation, a quotation that spans several sentences, or a very informal style can be miscounted by one or two. For a count that must be exact, such as a formal requirement, read through the result yourself.

Check Your Average Sentence Length

The words per sentence figure is your total words divided by your sentence count. There is no single correct number, because the right length depends on the reader and the kind of writing. Instructions and web copy usually work better with shorter sentences, and academic or literary writing often uses longer ones.

To see where you stand, look at the long sentences panel. It lists up to three of your longest sentences when they are 20 words or longer. Those are the best places to start if you want to simplify a draft. You can split a long sentence at "and," "but" or "which," or cut words that repeat an idea.

For a fuller measure of how hard text is to read, see our guide to increasing the Flesch-Kincaid grade level, which covers how sentence length and word length feed into readability scores.

Fix Long or Awkward Sentences

If the counter shows a few sentences that run long, you have two choices: tidy them by hand, or get a suggestion.

• Read the sentence aloud. If you run out of breath, split it.
• Put one idea in each sentence, then link them with a short connector.
• Cut phrases that repeat what the sentence already says.

The buttons under the text box send your text to the free sentence rewriter, the paragraph expander or the summarizer. These are AI tools, so you should always read what they give you before using it. For a word-level view, use the word counter.

Who Uses a Sentence Counter

• Students meeting a requirement such as "write at least ten sentences."
• Teachers checking short answers and paragraphs.
• Writers and editors trimming long sentences before publishing.
• Language learners practicing with a set number of sentences.
• Copywriters keeping ads and landing page copy short and clear.

Your Text Stays in Your Browser

The counting happens on your device. Nothing you type is uploaded, saved or sent to an AI. If you click one of the AI buttons, your text is carried over to that tool.

What This Counter Cannot Tell You

It counts sentences by their punctuation, so it cannot judge whether a sentence is complete or well written. A fragment with a full stop counts, and a run-on sentence with no full stop does not split. It also cannot tell you what the right length is for your reader. Use the numbers as a prompt to reread, not as a score.

Related Tools and Guides

• Word counter
• Character counter
• Sentence rewriter
• Grammar checker
• Increase the Flesch-Kincaid grade level