What it does
Abstracts have hard limits, and a submission system that rejects 253 words at 11 pm is no fun. This page counts your abstract the way word processors do and shows exactly where the limit falls:
- Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and paragraphs, plus the average sentence length, so you can spot a 60-word sentence.
- Your limit in words or characters. The bar turns red and the words over the limit are marked in the text, so you know how much to cut and where the cut falls.
- LaTeX removed if you paste from your .tex file: comments,
\citeand\labelare left out, maths such as$r$and each\refcount as one word,\textit{in situ}keeps its words and accents such ascaf\'ebecome letters. - Keywords: type them to count them against the keyword limit and see which ones also appear in the abstract.
- Most used words: words of four letters or more used more than once, to catch repetition.
How to use it
- Paste your abstract, or open a .txt or .tex file. Leave Remove LaTeX commands ticked for LaTeX.
- Limit. Type the limit from the journal’s guide for authors and choose words or characters. The example buttons fill in round numbers to start from; they are only examples, since every journal and meeting sets its own.
- Count. Read the count and the bar. Everything updates as you type.
- Trim. Cut words in your own editor until the marked part is gone, or rewrite the long sentences.
Worked example
Press Use the example. The made-up abstract has a citation, two bits of maths and a LaTeX comment. With LaTeX removed the page counts 112 of 250 words, 138 left, in 6 sentences (18.7 words per sentence). “e.g.” inside the first sentence, “Fig. 3” and “et al. (2019)” do not end sentences. Untick Remove LaTeX commands and the count rises to 119 words, because the citation command and the comment are counted too.
Press Example: Short abstract, 150 words, then type 100 as the limit: the page says Over the limit by 12 and marks the last 12 words, from “of star formation in galaxy outskirts” to the end. The most used word is “discs” (three times).
Tips
- Count the final text. Journals count what will be printed, so a citation in the abstract usually turns into words; many ask for no citations in the abstract at all.
- Hyphenated words count as one word here and in most word processors, but some submission systems split them. If you are right at the limit, leave a few words of room.
- Characters limits usually include spaces; check which one your meeting means.
FAQ
Why does my word processor give a slightly different number? Programs differ on symbols standing alone (such as ± or –) and on slashes. This page counts a token only if it has a letter or a digit in it, as Word and Google Docs do.
What counts as a sentence? A full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space and a capital letter or a number, unless the word before is a common abbreviation (e.g., i.e., et al., Fig., Eq., Dr.) or a single initial.
Is my abstract stored or sent? No. It is counted on this page and is gone when you close it.
Where the numbers come from
- Word, character and sentence counting rules are written by fibub. Sentence counts were checked against the pysbd sentence splitter and word counts against Python and wc on made-up abstracts.
- The example limits (150, 250 and 300 words, 1,500 characters) are round numbers chosen as examples, not any journal's rule.
- The example abstract is made up.
Standard scientific values, such as constants, atomic weights and melting points, are facts found in every textbook; we name where ours were checked. If you are an author or publisher and want a value, a credit or a table changed or removed, tell us and we will act quickly.
Last updated 2026-11-09.