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Count the words in a PDF

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Processed on this device. Nothing is uploaded.

Short answer

Open a PDF and its text layer is read in your browser to count words, characters and sentences, with an estimated reading time. A page with no extractable text is reported separately rather than silently counted as zero, since that usually means a scanned page rather than an empty one.

Doing more than one thing?

The full editor puts every operation in one workspace with undo, so you are not exporting and re-opening between each step. Same engine, same privacy, still nothing uploaded.

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Why this one does not upload your file

Almost every free count the words in a pdf tool works by sending your document to a server, doing the work there, and sending a result back. That is a cost decision rather than a privacy one — server time costs money, which is why those tools meter you, ask for an account, or cap your file size.

This one runs the same work in your browser using JavaScript, so your file never travels anywhere. There is no upload step, no queue, no account, and no page limit — and the page keeps working if you disconnect from the internet partway through.

You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network tab and watch while you work, or read how it works.

What happens to your file

  • It is read from your disk into this tab's memory
  • Every change happens on your own processor
  • The result is built in memory, reopened and checked before you are offered it
  • Your original file is never modified
  • Closing the tab releases everything — nothing is stored
Questions

Straight answers

Why does it say 0 words?
Because the document is almost certainly a scan. A scanned page is a picture of words, not words, so there is nothing to count until it has been through OCR — which is not built here yet.
How is reading time calculated?
Total words divided by 225 words per minute, a common average adult reading speed, rounded up to the nearest minute.
Does it count words inside images or scanned pages?
No. Only the real text layer is counted. Pages with no extractable text are reported separately so you know they were skipped rather than genuinely empty.
Is the sentence count exact?
It is an estimate based on sentence-ending punctuation, which is close enough for a word-count purpose but will misfire on abbreviations and unusual punctuation.