How to Use This Tool
Paste your essay. You get two numbers, not one, and the gap between them is the point.
Why two numbers
IELTS states the minimums plainly: at least 150 words for Writing Task 1 and at least 250 words for Task 2, and that a short answer is penalised. What it does not publish is a word-counting specification for the Writing test. So three questions have no official answer:
- Is state-of-the-art one word or four?
- Does 24 count, or only twenty-four?
- Is it’s one word or two?
Reasonable counters answer these differently, which is why your word processor, your teacher's count, and the tool you used last week can all disagree. This page counts your essay under the strictest set of assumptions and the loosest set, and shows both.
Use the strict number. If the strict count clears the minimum, every counting rule clears it. If only the loose count clears it, you are relying on an assumption nobody has confirmed.
What the minimum is not
250 is a floor, not a target. An essay of exactly 251 words has usually not had room to develop two positions and a conclusion, and it reads that way. Most teaching centres suggest aiming for roughly 260–290 on Task 2 — enough to be clearly over, not so much that you run out of time or start repeating yourself. There is no upper limit and no penalty for length, but there is a penalty for an unfinished argument, and the clock is the real constraint.
About TOEFL
If you came here looking for a TOEFL essay length, the honest answer is that the number you are probably looking for describes a task that no longer exists. The TOEFL iBT Writing section is now Build a Sentence, Write an Email, and Write for an Academic Discussion. The Integrated Writing task — the source of the widely quoted “150–225 words” — has been removed, and ETS does not publish a word minimum for the current tasks.
Almost every essay word counter online still prints the old figure. Treat any tool that gives you a confident TOEFL word target as out of date, including the advice it wraps around that number.