How to Do Word Count in Google Docs

Published: 03/01/2025

Table of Contents

1. Basic Word Count

Accessing Word Count in Google Docs

Google Docs provides a built-in word count feature that gives you information about words, characters, and pages in your document.

Method 1: Using the Tools Menu

  1. Open your Google Doc
  2. Click on Tools in the top menu
  3. Select Word count from the dropdown menu
Word count menu in Google Docs

Method 2: Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Windows / Chrome OS
Ctrl + Shift + C
Mac
⌘ + Shift + C

Understanding the Word Count Dialog

The word count dialog displays:

  • Pages: Number of pages in your document if you are using Pages format
  • Words: Total word count
  • Characters (no spaces): Character count excluding spaces
  • Characters (with spaces): Character count including spaces
Word count dialog in Google Docs
Word count display while typing in Google Docs

Enabling Word Count While Typing

You can keep the word count visible as you type:

  1. Open the word count dialog using either method above
  2. Check the box for Display word count while typing
  3. Click OK

This will display a small word count indicator at the bottom left of your document that updates in real-time as you type.

Live Word count in Google Docs

2. Count Specific Sections

Counting Words in Specific Sections

Selecting Text for Partial Word Count

  1. Select the text you want to count by clicking and dragging
  2. Access the word count through either the Tools menu or keyboard shortcut
  3. The dialog will show both the selected text count and the total document count
Selected text word count in Google Docs

Counting Words in Special Elements

Google Docs counts words differently in various document elements:

Tables

Words in tables are included in the total count. You can select specific cells, rows, or columns to count just those sections.

Headers and Footers

Words in headers and footers are included in the total document count. To count only these elements:

  1. Double-click the header or footer to edit it
  2. Select all text in that area (Ctrl+A or ⌘+A)
  3. Check the word count
Footnotes and Endnotes

Words in footnotes and endnotes are included in the total count. To count just footnotes:

  1. Click on a footnote to navigate to the footnotes section
  2. Select all text in the footnotes section
  3. Check the word count
Comments

Words in comments are not included in the document's word count.

3. Mobile Apps

Accessing Word Count on Mobile

On Android or iOS (iPhone/iPad)
  1. Open your document in the Google Docs app
  2. Tap the three-dot menu icon (⋮) in the upper right corner
  3. Tap Word count

Note: Mobile apps have limited functionality compared to desktop: no real-time word count display, can't count selected text separately, and no add-on support.

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