Word count in google docs

Whether you’re writing a marketing report with a firm 500 word limit, or are just curious if your blog post hits your editor’s 1,000-word minimum requirement, the word count tool in Google Docs can come in handy.

It’s a simple tool to ensure your content is an appropriate length. You can use it for more than just total word count, too — you can also measure how many words you have within a section, how many characters you have, and your page count.

To learn how to use word count in a Google doc, or to get a firmer understanding on what it offers, read on.

1. At the top of your Google Doc, click “Tools” and then select “Word Count”.

2. Here, you can see how many pages you have in your Doc (three), how many total words you have (777), how many characters you have (4992), and how many characters, excluding spaces, you have (4204). Characters are individual letters (“hey” is one word, but three characters), and typically only matters if a job or school application requires a character limit, rather than a word limit.

3. Next, let’s see how you can check the word count in a specific section. First, highlight the paragraph or section you want to measure. Below, I chose to highlight my third paragraph to get word count information on just that paragraph.

4. With a paragraph or section highlighted, click “Tools” and then “Word Count”. As you can see below, the Word Count now tells me how many words my third paragraph has compared to the entire Doc (59 out of 776), which page it’s on (1), and how many characters it has compared to the entire piece (400). This is useful if you need to cut down on word count for a specific section of your Doc. 

There is also a shortcut to find your word count — click “command + Shift + C,” and it’ll pop right up.

Now, you’re equipped to measure the word count, character count, or page length of your Doc, which helps you hit word-limit or page-limit requirements. Word count is also an important tool to use when choosing your audience: 1,000 words is good for a blog audience, but 10,000 might be better as an e-book … or short novel.

“The article should be 800 words…maximum.”

I can’t count the number of times an editor has assigned me a word count for a piece. In the world of writing, word count matters more than we might think. Many publications determine how much to pay for freelance writing jobs based on article length.

Word count matters for book writers, too. How many words in a novel? Did you know novels should be at least 50,000 words? And that memoirs should be under 100,000 words, but biographies can be up to 200,000 words?

As a writer, do you compose drafts in Google Docs? (Here at The Write Life, we’re pretty big fans of track changes in Google Docs.) You may be wondering how to see the word count in Google Docs.

Good news — it’s simple.

How to see word count in Google Docs

When it comes to word count, there are three types of writers: Those who look at the word count after completing a draft, those who prefer to check in every once in a while and those who want to see the word count throughout the entire process.

If you fall into either of the first two categories, here are two strategies for viewing word count in Google Docs. (If you’re in the third group, don’t worry, there’s a method for you, too!)

1. In the upper left corner of Google Docs, click on Tools and scroll down to Word count.

A box will pop up that displays the number of pages, words, characters and characters excluding spaces in the Google Doc. Take a look and press OK when you’re ready to hide the box.

2. There’s a second way to check your word count in Google Docs: use the shortcut! Just hit Ctrl+Shift+C for the box to appear.

How to check word count in Google Docs for a chunk of text

Do you get the hunch that chapter three of your novel is running a bit long? There’s a way to check word count in Google Docs without copying and pasting the chapter’s text into a separate document.

Highlight the relevant text, then either select Word count under Tools or use the Ctrl+Shift+C shortcut for the box to pop up. 

This time, the box will display how many pages, words, characters and characters excluding spaces are in this chunk of text with respect to the total number in the Google Doc.

How to view word count in Google Docs as you type

This strategy is for the third category of writers. Let’s say an editor instructs you to keep an article under 1,200 words. You don’t want to finish a draft only to discover it’s 1,800 words, then make heavy edits before you can submit the piece. 

Just keep track as you go!

Either click on Word count or use the shortcut to bring up that little box. Then select Display word count while typing. A small rectangle pops up in the lower left corner of the Google Doc that displays the word count.

Click the rectangle’s arrow to see the number of pages, characters and characters excluding spaces. Is the rectangle becoming annoying? Click that arrow and select Hide word count to get it out of your hair.

Once your document exceeds 3,676 words, the rectangle no longer shows the number of words. (Why that number? I have no idea.) It will just say View word count, and you can click on the rectangle to see the details.

What is not included in the word count?

Be aware that Google Docs does not include certain things in its word count. It doesn’t count anything in the header, footer or footnotes, even if you highlight the words in those sections and select Word count.

Google Docs also doesn’t count symbols, such as # or $, in its word count. It does count them as characters, though.

It does include em-dashes, which look like — this. (Curious about how to type an em dash? It stumps a lot of writers, but we’ve got a simple guide.) Keep in mind, it only counts an em-dash as a word if there are spaces on either side of it. If you type it like—this, Google Docs doesn’t count the em-dash.

For example, I count 63 words in the above paragraph when I count manually, because I take symbols into consideration. But when I highlight the text and count using Google Docs, the word count appears as 60, because Google Docs didn’t count either of the symbols or the em-dash without spaces. 

Counting words can be a little like losing weight. Some people prefer to step on the scales constantly, others like to check in every once in a while, and some just do a final weigh-in when they’ve completed their diet. Whichever method works for your writing style, there’s a way to check word count in Google Docs.

Photo via Rido / Shutterstock