Disclaimer & Terms of Use

1. What This Tool Is and Is Not

What This Tool Is

Online Word Counter Free is a free, browser-based text analysis tool. It helps writers, students, editors, SEO professionals, prompt engineers, and content creators analyze and improve their writing.

Every calculation runs inside your own browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or sent to any server — except as described in the Web Page and URL Content Fetch and Privacy sections below.

What This Tool Does Not Do

• Not a plagiarism checker. The Text Comparison feature compares two drafts you already have. It does not check your text against the internet or any academic database.
• Not an AI writing tool. The AI Token Counter estimates token usage using local math only. The Tool never calls any AI service to generate, rewrite, or paraphrase text.
• No file import. There is no file upload. Text must be typed, pasted, dictated, or fetched from a public URL. The Tool cannot open .docx or .pdf files.
• Not a team platform. There are no accounts, no shared documents, and no multi-user editing. Each session is for one person in one browser tab.
• No bulk processing. The Tool processes one document at a time. There is no API, no batch upload, and no automated or unattended processing.
• Cannot fetch JavaScript-rendered pages. The URL fetch works by requesting server-rendered HTML only. Pages built with JavaScript frameworks will not return their content. See Web Page and URL Content Fetch below.
• Not an email harvesting tool. The Email Extractor identifies email addresses within text you have pasted into the editor. It does not access external email servers, contact databases, or any resource outside your browser session. All extraction runs locally. Nothing is sent to onlinewordcounterfree.com.

2. Readability, Keyword Density, and SEO Scoring

Readability Scores

The Tool provides four readability formulas: Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning Fog Index, Automated Readability Index (ARI), and SMOG Index. Each measures different surface-level features of your text, such as sentence length and syllable count.

Flesch Reading Ease

Flesch Reading Ease (Flesch, 1948) scores text from 0 to 100. A score of 60–70 is suitable for most general readers. Higher means easier.

Gunning Fog Index

Gunning Fog Index (Gunning, 1952) estimates the years of education a reader needs. A score of 8–12 is appropriate for most business and consumer writing.

Automated Readability Index (ARI)

ARI is calculated from characters per word and words per sentence. It is a useful cross-check against Flesch and Gunning Fog results.

SMOG Index

SMOG Index (McLaughlin, 1969) is the standard formula for health communications and government plain-language writing, based on polysyllabic word density.

These scores are reference indicators only. They do not measure conceptual complexity, domain knowledge, or how a real reader will respond to your writing.

A SMOG score from this Tool is not a compliance certificate. Users producing content for regulated health, legal, or government contexts must verify compliance requirements independently.

Keyword Density and SEO Content Score

Keyword Density shows how often a word appears as a percentage of total word count. A range of 1–2 percent is generally considered natural for any primary keyword.

SEO Content Score is a green, yellow, or red signal based on keyword density thresholds. It flags likely over-optimization above roughly 5 percent.

These features are quick reference checks, not a full SEO audit. This Tool does not predict search rankings or guarantee any SEO outcome. Do not use it as a substitute for professional SEO consultation.

3. Web Page and URL Content Fetch — Scope and Limitations

The URL Content Fetch feature lets you paste a public web page URL and retrieve its readable text without copying and pasting manually. Most free word counter tools do not offer this feature.

How It Works

When you submit a URL, the Tool sends a server-side HTTP request using PHP. The server returns the HTML of that page, and the Tool strips out navigation, ads, and scripts, leaving only the readable article text.

What It Can Fetch

Any page that delivers its readable text in the initial HTML response from the server — including blog posts, Wikipedia entries, documentation pages, government pages, and standard news articles.

What It Cannot Fetch

Pages where content is loaded by JavaScript after the page opens. This includes social media platforms (X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok), single-page applications built with React or similar frameworks, login-protected pages, and pages behind bot-mitigation systems.

Why This Limitation Exists

Fetching JavaScript-rendered content requires running a full browser engine on the server, known as headless browsing. This is computationally expensive and not offered by any free word counter tool. This Tool is transparent about this so users understand exactly what the feature does and does not do.

If the Fetch Returns No Content

Open the page in your browser, copy the article text, and paste it directly into the editor. The Tool will analyze it in exactly the same way.

Third-Party Pages

The Tool does not store or republish fetched content. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of the URL fetch feature complies with the terms of service of the target website and with applicable law.

4. Sentiment Analysis and Social Media Character Limits

Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis classifies your text as positive, negative, neutral, or mixed by counting recognized positive and negative words against a fixed word list.

This is a keyword-matching check, not an AI model. It does not understand context, negation, sarcasm, or cultural nuance. Do not use it to measure actual reader response or brand perception.

Social Media Character Limits

The Social Media tab checks your text against the published character limits of 25 or more platforms and fields. These limits are based on each platform's publicly stated specifications as at the date of the last review of this Tool.

Platforms change their character limits without notice. Always verify the current limit directly on the relevant platform before publishing content where character count is material.

5. Privacy, AI Token Counter, and Context Window Information

Privacy — How Your Data Is Handled

• AI Token Counter. Uses local arithmetic only. No text is ever sent to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, or any other AI provider.
• Voice Input. Uses the browser's own Web Speech API. Depending on your browser, audio may be processed by your browser vendor's servers under their privacy policy, not ours. Recordings are stored locally and are not sent to onlinewordcounterfree.com unless you click Download or Share.
• Writing goals and drafts. Stored in your browser's local storage only. Clearing your browser data removes them permanently. There is no server-side backup.
• Email Extractor. Runs entirely within your browser. Email addresses identified within your pasted text are not transmitted to onlinewordcounterfree.com or any third party. The extracted list remains in your browser session only and is cleared when you close or refresh the tab.
• URL fetch. The URL you submit is processed by the onlinewordcounterfree.com server to fetch the page. The retrieved content is returned to your browser and is not stored or logged beyond the duration of the request.
• PDF export. Selecting PDF export loads a small open-source PDF library from a CDN on first use. Your text and results remain in your browser and are not sent to the CDN.
• Third-party embeds. This privacy description applies only to the Tool as operated by onlinewordcounterfree.com. Third-party websites that embed this Tool may have different data practices.

Related: for the full picture of what this site does and does not collect, see the Privacy Policy.

AI Token Counter and Context Window Information

Token estimates use an approximation of 1.33 tokens per word, derived from OpenAI's published tokenization documentation. Actual counts vary by model, tokenizer, and text composition.

For exact counts, use the official tokenization tools from each provider, such as OpenAI's Tiktoken for GPT models or Anthropic's documentation for Claude. Context-window figures displayed are based on publicly available information as at the last review date and may not reflect current specifications.

6. Reference Tables — For Planning Only

The five reference tables cover characters-to-words conversions, word counts by writing genre, speaking time by context, academic word count requirements by country, and legal filing word limits by court.

These are typical reference ranges for planning only. They are not official requirements. Academic and legal limits are set by individual institutions and courts and can change at any time. Always verify the exact requirement with the relevant authority before submitting any formal document.

Related: all five reference tables are published in full on the How It Works reference guide.

7. Voice Input and Read Aloud

Both features use your browser's own built-in APIs — the Web Speech API for speech recognition and the browser's text-to-speech engine for Read Aloud. No paid external service is used.

Performance depends on your browser, operating system, and installed voices. The Tool does not warrant the accuracy of transcribed speech or audio output. Users handling sensitive or confidential information should review their browser vendor's privacy policy for the Web Speech API before using Voice Input.

8. No Warranties and Limitation of Liability

This Tool is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranty of any kind. onlinewordcounterfree.com expressly disclaims all warranties, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or uninterrupted and error-free operation.

All outputs — readability scores, keyword density, SEO signals, sentiment results, token estimates, character-limit indicators, and reference table figures — are for informational and planning purposes only. They are not professional advice of any kind and do not constitute legal, medical, editorial, academic, SEO, or compliance certification.

onlinewordcounterfree.com is not liable for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss arising from use of this Tool, including submission rejection, legal non-compliance, adverse search rankings, academic penalty, or reputational harm.

Users are solely responsible for all decisions made on the basis of Tool outputs. Always apply independent professional judgment before acting on any score or figure shown here.

9. Changes, Governing Law, and Contact

Changes to This Disclaimer

This Disclaimer may be updated at any time without prior notice. The revised version will take effect immediately upon publication. The "Last Reviewed" date at the top will reflect the date of the most recent change.

Continued use of the Tool after a revision is published constitutes acceptance of the updated Disclaimer. Users are encouraged to review this page periodically.

Governing Law and Contact

This Disclaimer is governed by applicable law. Any dispute arising in connection with this Disclaimer or the use of the Tool shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts of the applicable jurisdiction.

For questions regarding this Disclaimer or the Tool, contact Online Word Counter Free through the form at onlinewordcounterfree.com/contact-us.

Online Word Counter Free  |  onlinewordcounterfree.com  |  Last Reviewed: August 2026

Related Pages

This site maintains the following legal and policy pages, all of which are accessible from the site footer:

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• How It Works
• Contact Us
• About Us