About CountMyPaper
What CountMyPaper does, who it's for, and how it counts words the way your university actually counts them.
📄 What is CountMyPaper?
CountMyPaper is a free word counter for academic writing. Paste an essay, dissertation, or research paper and get a count based on the rules that decide whether you're over the limit — not just the raw total.
Word gives you one number for the whole document. But your word limit usually doesn't cover the whole document. Most UK universities exclude the reference list, and many also exclude appendices, footnotes, and tables. CountMyPaper lets you switch those off so the number you see matches the number that gets marked.
⚙️ What counts and what doesn't is up to you
You decide which sections count toward the total. Toggle any of these in or out:
- References and bibliography
- Appendices
- Footnotes and endnotes
- Tables and table content
- Figure captions
- Headings and subheadings
- In-text citations
🚀 How it works
Paste your text or drop in a document, pick what to exclude, and read off the count. It's instant. There's no signup, and nothing leaves your computer — the counting happens in your browser, so your draft never touches a server.
Free, private, and instant — no signup required.