Word count without in-text citations
Paste your essay to see its word count with in-text citations and without them. Author-date citations such as (Smith, 2020, p. 4) and numbered ones such as [3] are left out of the second count.
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At a glance
- Author-date citations removed
- Brackets that contain a year or "n.d.", such as (Smith, 2020), (Lee & Ng, 2021; Patel, 2022a) or (Walker, n.d.)
- Numbered citations removed
- Square brackets holding numbers only, such as [3], [2, 5] or [4–6]
- Kept in the count
- Any other brackets, such as (see below) or [sic], and footnote text you paste in
- Narrative citations
- In "Smith (2020) found", the year is removed and "Smith" still counts as a word
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Word count without in-text citations: what to know
This page starts the word counter for this case. For every option and how to use it, see the word counter.
Do in-text citations count towards a word limit?
It depends on your school, department or journal, and the rule is usually in your module handbook, assignment brief or author guidelines. Some exclude citations and the reference list, some include everything, and some include citations but not the reference list. When the brief doesn't say, ask your tutor or editor rather than guess.
Whatever the rule, the reference list at the end is easy to leave out: just don't paste it in. This tool handles the citations inside your paragraphs, which are tedious to subtract by hand.
Check what was removed
The counter looks for patterns, not meaning. A bracket with a year in it that isn't a citation, such as (founded 1998), is removed too. If the two counts differ by more than you expect, scan your text for brackets like that. Footnote citations aren't detected, so remove the footnotes before pasting if they shouldn't count.
Questions
Do in-text citations count in the word count?
It depends on your institution or publisher. Check the assignment brief or style guide; this tool shows both counts so you can use whichever applies.
Which citation styles does it recognise?
Author-date styles such as APA and Harvard, where the citation holds a year, and numbered styles such as IEEE and Vancouver, where it's a number in square brackets.
Does it remove footnotes?
No. Footnote numbers and footnote text are counted if you paste them, so leave them out if your limit excludes them.