Sentence counter

Count sentences — and see how long they run

Sentence count is half the story; average sentence length is the other half, and the simplest readability signal there is. Paste your text for both, plus your longest and shortest sentences pulled out so you can judge them yourself.

How sentences are detected

A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark (including … and runs like ?!). Two protections keep the count honest: decimals — the dot in 3.5 is not a sentence break — and a list of common abbreviations such as Dr., Mr., etc., e.g., i.e., U.S. and a.m., whose full stops are ignored. Headings and fragments without ending punctuation count as one sentence if they contain words. No detector is perfect: an abbreviation we don't know, or a full stop inside a name, can shift the count by one.

What average length should you aim for?

Plain-English guidance for general readers lands around 15–20 words per sentence on average, with variety doing the real work — a long, well-built sentence followed by a short one reads better than twenty identical mid-length ones. Averages above 25 usually mean some sentences are carrying two ideas and would split cleanly. If your longest sentence is three times your average, read it aloud: if you run out of breath, so will your reader.

Frequently asked questions

Does a heading count as a sentence?

Yes, if it contains words and sits in the pasted text — it has no ending punctuation, so it is counted as one fragment-sentence. Remove headings before pasting if you want body text only.

Why is my count one more than I expected?

Usually an abbreviation outside our list (like "approx." used mid-sentence is covered, but initials in names, such as "J. R. R. Tolkien", are treated as separate short sentences). The word counter uses the same detector, so counts agree across the site.