How to count the number of words in a cell or a range cells in Excel?

You can easily count the number of words in MS Word, but Excel doesn't have a built-in tool for counting the number of words in a worksheet. However, you can count the number of words in Excel with following methods:

Count number of words with formula

Count number of words in a single cell with User Defined Functions

Count number of words in specified range with VBA code

Easily count the number of words with Kutools for Excel (several clicks)

Count the number of words with formula

Here are two formulas for you to count words in a single cell and in a range cells.

Count words in a single cell

Please enter this formula =IF(LEN(TRIM(A2))=0,0,LEN(TRIM(A2))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""))+1) into the Formula Bar, and then press the Enter key.

Note: In the formula, A2 is the cell you will count number of words inside.

You can see the result as below screenshot shown:

Count words in a range of cells with array formula

If you want to count the words in a range of cells, please enter formula =SUM(IF(LEN(TRIM(A2:A3))=0,0,LEN(TRIM(A2:A3))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2:A3," ",""))+1)) into the formula bar, and then press the Shift + Ctrl + Enter keys simultaneously to get the result. See screenshot:

Note: A2:A3 is the range with words you will count.

Count the number of words with User Defined Functions

Also, you can count the words in a cell with the User Defined Functions, please do as follows:

1. Press Alt + F11 keys together to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for applications window.

2. In the winodw, click Insert > Module, then copy and paste below VBA code into the Module. See screenshot:

VBA code: Count number of words in a cell.

Function intWordCount(rng As Range) As Integer
'Update by Extendoffice 2018/3/7
    intWordCount = UBound(Split(Application.WorksheetFunction.Trim(rng.Value), " "), 1) + 1
End Function

2. Press the Alt + Q keys to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications winodw. Select a blank cell in your worksheet, enter formula “=intwordcount(A2)” into the Formula Bar, and then press the Enter key to get the result. See screenshot:

Note: In the formula, A2 is the cell you will count number of words inside.

If you want to count number of words in a certain range, please apply the following method.

Count number of words in specified range with VBA code

The following VBA code can help you quickly count number of words in a specified range.

1. Press Alt + F11 keys together to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for applications window.

2. In the winodw, click Insert > Module, then copy and paste below VBA code into the Module. See screenshot:

VBA code: Count number of words in selected range.

Sub CountWords()
    Dim xRg As Range
    Dim xRgEach As Range
    Dim xAddress As String
    Dim xRgVal As String
    Dim xRgNum As Long
    Dim xNum As Long
    On Error Resume Next
    xAddress = ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.Address
    Set xRg = Application.InputBox("Please select a range:", "Kutools For Excel", xAddress, , , , , 8)
    If xRg Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountBlank(xRg) = xRg.Count Then
        MsgBox "Words In Selection Is: 0", vbInformation, "Kutools For Excel"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    For Each xRgEach In xRg
        xRgVal = xRgEach.Value
        xRgVal = Application.WorksheetFunction.Trim(xRgVal)
        If xRgEach.Value <> "" Then
            xNum = Len(xRgVal) - Len(Replace(xRgVal, " ", "")) + 1
            xRgNum = xRgNum + xNum
        End If
    Next xRgEach
    MsgBox "Words In Selection Is: " & Format(xRgNum, "#,##0"), vbOKOnly, "Kutools For Excel"
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

3. Press the F5 key to run the code. In the popping up Kutools for Excel dialog box, please select the range you will count number of words inside, and then click the OK button. See screenshot:

Then another Kutools for Excel dialog box pops up to show you the total number of words in seleted range. See screenshot:

Count the number of words with Kutools for Excel (only clicks)

You can try the Count words in range utility of Kutools for Excel to easily count number of words in a cell or a range with only several clicks.

Kutools for Excel : with more than 120 handy Excel add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 60 days.

1. Select a cell for returning the result, then click Kutools > Formula Helper > Count words in range. See screenshot:

2. In the Formula Helper dialog box, specify the cell or range with words you need to count in the Range box, and then click the OK button. See screenshot:

Then you will get the number of words in specified cell or range.

Tip.If you want to have a free trial of this utility, please go to download the software freely first, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

Easily count the number of words with Kutools for Excel

Kutools for Excel includes more than 120 handy Excel tools. Free to try with no limitation in 60 days. Download the free trial now!

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