Word Counter API

Request parameters

Response fields

A successful response is {"ok":true,"data":{…}}. These fields are inside data.

words · integer

Number of words. Minimum: 0.

chars · integer

Unicode code points, including whitespace. Minimum: 0.

charsNoSpace · integer

Code points after removing whitespace. Minimum: 0.

sentences · integer

Number of sentences. Minimum: 0.

paragraphs · integer

Number of paragraphs. Minimum: 0.

lines · integer

Number of lines. Minimum: 0.

bytes · integer

UTF-8 bytes. Minimum: 0.

unique · integer

Case-insensitive unique word tokens. Minimum: 0.

readingSeconds · integer

Rounded reading duration in seconds. Minimum: 0.

speakingSeconds · integer

Rounded speaking duration in seconds. Minimum: 0.

Counting rules you can reproduce

The API uses the same counting core as the online word counter. Hyphenated words and contractions remain single words. Han characters and Japanese kana count individually; Korean and other space-separated scripts use word tokens. Characters are counted by Unicode code point, so a combined emoji sequence can contain several characters even when it looks like one glyph.

Interpreting the statistics

chars includes whitespace and punctuation; charsNoSpace removes all whitespace, including tabs and line breaks. bytes measures UTF-8 storage size rather than character count. unique ignores case. Sentence boundaries use punctuation heuristics rather than a linguistic parser. Reading and speaking estimates are rounded seconds based on the supplied speeds, not measurements of a particular reader.

cURL, JavaScript and Python examples

curl --fail-with-body --request POST 'https://www.base64.sh/api/v1/word-counter/' \
  --user-agent 'Base64.sh API example/1.0' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"text":"Hello world.\n\nSecond paragraph."}'

const response = await fetch("https://www.base64.sh/api/v1/word-counter/", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
  "text": "Hello world.\n\nSecond paragraph."
})
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(await response.text());
console.log(await response.json());

import json
from urllib.request import Request, urlopen

payload = json.loads("{\n  \"text\": \"Hello world.\\n\\nSecond paragraph.\"\n}")
request = Request(
    "https://www.base64.sh/api/v1/word-counter/",
    data=json.dumps(payload, ensure_ascii=False).encode("utf-8"),
    headers={"Content-Type": "application/json", "User-Agent": "Base64.sh API example/1.0"},
    method="POST",
)
with urlopen(request, timeout=15) as response:
    print(json.load(response))

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "words": 4,
    "chars": 31,
    "charsNoSpace": 27,
    "sentences": 2,
    "paragraphs": 2,
    "lines": 3,
    "bytes": 31,
    "unique": 4,
    "readingSeconds": 1,
    "speakingSeconds": 2
  }
}

curl --fail-with-body --request POST 'https://www.base64.sh/api/v1/word-counter/' \
  --user-agent 'Base64.sh API example/1.0' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"text":"Hello 世界 😀"}'

const response = await fetch("https://www.base64.sh/api/v1/word-counter/", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
  "text": "Hello 世界 😀"
})
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(await response.text());
console.log(await response.json());

import json
from urllib.request import Request, urlopen

payload = json.loads("{\n  \"text\": \"Hello 世界 😀\"\n}")
request = Request(
    "https://www.base64.sh/api/v1/word-counter/",
    data=json.dumps(payload, ensure_ascii=False).encode("utf-8"),
    headers={"Content-Type": "application/json", "User-Agent": "Base64.sh API example/1.0"},
    method="POST",
)
with urlopen(request, timeout=15) as response:
    print(json.load(response))

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "words": 3,
    "chars": 10,
    "charsNoSpace": 8,
    "sentences": 1,
    "paragraphs": 1,
    "lines": 1,
    "bytes": 17,
    "unique": 3,
    "readingSeconds": 1,
    "speakingSeconds": 1
  }
}

Invalid request example

{
  "text": 123
}

HTTP 400

{
  "ok": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "INVALID_INPUT",
    "message": "text must be a string."
  }
}

Limits and error handling

Requests require Content-Type: application/json and a UTF-8 JSON object. The body limit is 32 KiB (32,768 bytes), text fields allow up to 16,384 Unicode code points unless a smaller limit is listed, and responses are limited to 256 KiB. Unknown parameters and unpaired Unicode surrogates in parameter strings are rejected. Send inputs in the request body, not query parameters.

Anonymous access is limited to approximately 60 POST requests per minute per IP address, shared across endpoints in each Cloudflare location. Shared networks share the allowance. Counters are eventually consistent, not a guaranteed global quota. On HTTP 429, wait for the Retry-After interval before retrying; avoid immediate retry loops.

Programmatic clients should send an identifying User-Agent, as shown in the cURL and Python examples. Browser fetch supplies its own header. Cloudflare may reject a generic or missing agent before the API runs; an edge-generated 403 can be plain text or HTML rather than the JSON envelope. See Cloudflare error 1010.

400 · Invalid input

Malformed JSON, missing fields, unsupported options or invalid encoded text. Correct the input before retrying.

403 · Edge request blocked

Check the User-Agent and the Cloudflare error response before retrying.

404 · Unknown endpoint

Use a documented /api/v1/{tool}/ endpoint.

405 · Method not allowed

Use POST. OPTIONS is supported for browser CORS requests.

413 · Size limit exceeded

Reduce the request size or the generated output.

415 · Unsupported media type

Set Content-Type: application/json.

429 · Rate limited

Wait at least the Retry-After number of seconds.

500 / 503 · Service unavailable

Retry later with bounded backoff. Availability is not guaranteed.

API data processing

API inputs are sent over HTTPS and processed in memory by a Cloudflare Worker. The application does not persist submitted text or deliberately log request bodies, and API responses use Cache-Control: no-store. Cloudflare may process network metadata under its own policies. For local processing, use the corresponding browser tool. See the privacy policy.