Length of content in any document is a measure of the number of words you use to write about the given subject. Your communication in the document or a blog post could appear vague if you use a minimal number of words, or it could be monotonous if you stretch the content too much. Hence, it’s essential to know how to calculate the word count on Google Docs to ensure your documents have the right amount of words to effectively convey your message and ideas.

Being aware of the word limit while writing helps users build moderately long communication that explains their ideas concisely and doesn’t bore their readers to death. In fields like content marketing, the word count feature is the make-or-break factor that can affect engagement metrics.

How To Calculate Word Count On Google Docs 

Getting to know your word count in a Google document is an effortless procedure. For better word count, you can measure the length of an entire document in words, characters, or characters excluding spaces. Characters are every single blank space and letter that you use in the document’s word count.

That being said, let’s get into the details of how to check word count in Google doc quickly.

Steps To Check Word Count On Google Docs

1. Open Google Docs document.
2. Open the word count box from the Tools menu.
3. View the number of words in the online word counter and close the window.

Now that we know the quick steps; let’s check these steps in detail with images for both PC and smartphone.

How To Check Word Count On Google Docs On PC

A simple three-step procedure will help you how to check Google Docs word count for a document. Thanks to this feature, you can avoid using the manual word count method.

1. Open a Google Docs document

First and foremost, open the document for which you wish to generate the word count.

2. Open the word count dialog box

Next, click on the Tools option on the menu bar and select Word count from the drop-down menu.

Click on Word count
Click on Word count

3. View the Word count

Now, check the character count or the word count on Google Docs in the dialog box. You can also measure the length of a document using characters and pages.

If you wish to check the word count while writing, tick the box that says ‘Display word count while typing’ and click OK.

View and close the document
View and close the document

The live word count will appear in the bottom left corner of the screen.

View the live word count
View the live word count

If you don’t wish to use the Tools option to open the word count tool, you can press the following keyboard shortcut to open it directly.

Ctrl + Shift + C 

Similarly, you can also check the word count for a specific section or a text box.

How To Calculate Google Docs Word Count On Smartphones

Calculating word count on Google Docs on a smartphone is as easy as doing it on a PC.  The only difference is you won’t view the live word count while typing in this file format.

1. Open the document

To start with, open the document from the Google Docs app.

Open the document
Open the document

2. Click on the three dots

Then, tap on the three vertical dots in the top right corner.

 Tap on three vertical dots
Tap on three vertical dots

3. Select Word count

Next, select the Word count option from the drop-down menu.

Tap on Word count

4. View the word count

View the word count on the left bottom corner just above the status bar.

View and close the word count

One thing to be noted is that you cannot measure the length of a word document in the number of pages on an iOS or Android device. If you wish to measure a document by pages, you can add page numbers in Google Docs for better convenience.

What Is Excluded In Word Count

The built-in word count tool in Google Docs excludes words written in headers, footers, and footnotes. It also doesn’t count symbols, such as the “<” or “>” signs–as words. However, the word processor does count em dashes. Plus, Google Docs count word/s in links. So, if your document or the selected text has too many links that aren’t embedded in the text, your total word count might be higher than the manual word count.

Conclusion

The word count of a document in Google Docs or Microsoft Word helps you know the exact length of the document, thereby explaining whether the communication is long or short enough to be understood clearly by the readers. To ensure effective dissemination of information, word count is a mandatory factor that cannot be overlooked.

Calculating the word count on Google Docs is a snip for newbies and daily Google Docs users. You can measure the length using either words, characters, or characters without spaces in Docs as per your requirements. The word count function is available for use on both PC and mobile devices.