To find out how many words are in your text, paste it into WordCountNow.com.au for an instant count. For reference: a typical blog post is 800–1,500 words; a short story is 1,000–7,500 words; an undergraduate essay is 1,000–3,000 words; a novel is 70,000–100,000 words.
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Different writing formats have established conventions for length. Knowing these benchmarks helps you assess whether your text is on track or needs expanding or cutting.
| Format | Typical Word Count |
|---|---|
| Tweet / X post | Up to 70 words (~280 characters) |
| Instagram caption (visible) | 15–30 words (under ~125 chars) |
| SMS message | Up to ~30 words (160 characters) |
| Email (professional) | 75–200 words |
| Press release | 400–600 words |
| Short blog post | 600–900 words |
| Standard blog post | 1,000–1,800 words |
| Long-form article | 2,000–4,000 words |
| Flash fiction | 100–1,000 words |
| Short story | 1,000–7,500 words |
| Novelette | 7,500–17,500 words |
| Novella | 17,500–40,000 words |
| Novel (commercial) | 70,000–100,000 words |
| Epic fantasy novel | 100,000–200,000+ words |
| Short essay (academic) | 500–1,200 words |
| Undergraduate essay | 1,500–3,000 words |
| Research paper | 3,000–8,000 words |
| Honours thesis | 15,000–20,000 words |
| Master's dissertation | 20,000–40,000 words |
| PhD thesis | 60,000–100,000 words |
| White paper (business) | 3,000–5,000 words |
| Annual report (text sections) | 5,000–15,000 words |
The number of words per page depends heavily on formatting choices:
Because "words per page" varies so much, most publishers, universities, and platforms specify word count rather than page count to ensure consistency across different formatting setups.
To give you a sense of what word counts look like in context:
Writing speed varies dramatically by writer experience, topic familiarity, and type of writing. These are approximate guidelines:
These estimates assume first-draft writing, not polished copy. Editing, proofreading, and fact-checking add significant time on top of the writing itself.
A standard A4 page in 12pt Times New Roman with 1-inch margins holds approximately 250 words double-spaced or 500 words single-spaced. Page length varies by font, size, margins, and line spacing.
An experienced writer producing first-draft prose can typically write 500–1,000 words per hour. With research, that drops to 250–500 words per hour. A 1,000-word article might take 1–3 hours to write and edit depending on topic familiarity.
Most commercial novels fall between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Genre conventions vary: romance novels often target 50,000–100,000 words; epic fantasy can reach 200,000+. Literary fiction typically targets 80,000–100,000 words for debut authors.
For competitive SEO topics, 1,500–2,500 words is a solid target. For low-competition topics, 800–1,200 words may suffice. Match or exceed the average word count of the top 5–10 ranking pages for your target keyword.