Specific Word Counter
Count how many times a word appears in your text. Type one word, several words or a phrase, and the specific word counter shows each count, its density and the first place it appears, then highlights every match in your text so you can see exactly where it is.
- Several words at once
- Highlights every match
- Stays on your device
Where each word appears
Every match is highlighted in your text. Each word or phrase gets its own colour.
Your text appears here with the matches highlighted.
Count for each word
How often each word or phrase appears. Density is the share of all words it takes up, so a two-word phrase counts as two words.
| Word or phrase | Count | Density | First at word |
|---|
Type a word in the box above to count it.
How to count how many times a word appears
Counting a specific word or phrase takes three steps.
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Type the words to count
Enter one word, or several separated by commas: for example privacy, data, cookie policy. A phrase counts as one item.
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Paste your text
An article, a contract, a transcript or a web page. The counts update as you type.
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Check every match
Each word gets its own row with count, density and the word number where it first appears. Every match is highlighted in your text in its own colour.
In the sample paragraph, “word” appears 2 times, “count” 3 times and “keyword” 2 times. With “Include plurals” on, “words” and “counts” are added, bringing both to 4.
Whole words, parts of words and plurals
Three options decide what counts as a match. Here’s how they change the count for “art” in “Art lovers start at the art gallery and buy arts and crafts.”
| Setting | Matches | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Whole words only (default) | Art, art | 2 |
| Whole words + Include plurals | Art, art, arts | 3 |
| Whole words off | Art, start, art, arts | 4 |
| Whole words + Match case | art | 1 |
Plurals cover the common English endings: -s, -es, -ies (city → cities), -ves (leaf → leaves) and the possessive ’s.
What the specific word counter shows
Every word or phrase you enter gets its own results.
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#
Count per word
How many times each word or phrase appears, in its own table row.
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%
Density
The share of all words each term takes up. A two-word phrase used 5 times covers 10 words.
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→
First appearance
The word number where each term first shows up, and how many sentences contain a match.
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▮
Highlights
Every match marked in your text, with a different colour for each term.
Counting phrases and several words at once
Separate terms with commas to count up to 20 at once. A term with spaces, such as cookie policy, is counted as a phrase: the words must appear next to each other, in order, with only spaces between them. “Cookie, policy” in a list is not a match, because a comma separates the words.
The tool also counts symbols and short codes: type @ or # to count them, or turn off Whole words only to find a word inside longer words, such as every word that contains “graph”.
To find the words and phrases you repeat without typing them first, use the Word Frequency Counter or the Phrase Frequency Counter.
Other ways to count a specific word
Most apps can count a word, but they usually count one term at a time and don’t give density.
| App | How | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word | Ctrl+F (⌘F on a Mac), then type the word | The Navigation pane shows the number of results. |
| Google Docs | Ctrl+F (⌘F), then type the word | The search box shows “1 of N”. Use Edit → Find and replace for match case. |
| Web browsers | Ctrl+F (⌘F) on any page | Counts matches on the page, including inside longer words. |
| Excel or Google Sheets | =(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(LOWER(A1),"word","")))/LEN("word") | Counts the word inside longer words too, such as “sword”. |
Keyword counts and keyword stuffing
A specific word counter is a quick way to check how often a keyword appears in a page or an article, but more isn’t better. Google’s spam policies list keyword stuffing, “repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural”, as a spam practice.
There’s no ideal keyword density. Use the count to make sure your main term appears in the places a reader expects it (the title, the opening and the headings), and that it doesn’t crowd out natural wording everywhere else.
Specific word counter FAQ
How do I count how many times a word appears in a text?
Type the word in the box above the text, then paste your text. The count, density and every highlighted match appear immediately.
Can I count more than one word at once?
Yes. Separate words with commas, for example “price, cost, fee”. Each one gets its own count and colour; up to 20 at once.
Does it count the word inside other words?
Not by default: “art” doesn’t match “start”. Untick “Whole words only” to count it inside longer words too.
Is the search case-sensitive?
No, unless you tick “Match case”. Then “Apple” and “apple” are counted separately.
Can it count a phrase?
Yes. Type the phrase with spaces, such as “terms and conditions”. The words have to appear together, in that order.
What is keyword density?
The share of all the words in a text that a keyword takes up. One keyword used 6 times in 600 words has a density of 1%.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The search runs in your browser and nothing you paste leaves your device.
Sources and references
- Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central
- Find and replace text, Microsoft Support
More text analysis tools
- Find Specific Character Counter Count how many times a letter, symbol, emoji or space appears in text. Open tool
- Frequency Word Frequency Counter Rank every word by how often it appears, with counts and density. Open tool
- N-grams Phrase Frequency Counter Find repeated 2- to 5-word phrases (n-grams) and how often each appears. Open tool
- Repeats Duplicate Word Finder Find doubled words like “the the” and words repeated too close together. Open tool