Conferences and journals enforce word and page limits, but LaTeX source is full of commands that aren't words. The challenge is counting the prose without counting the markup. You can paste text into our free word counter for an instant count, or read on for the trade-offs.
Why counts disagree
Three methods give three different numbers:
- Counting the .tex source includes commands like
\sectionand\citeas "words," inflating the count. - texcount (a Perl tool) tries to count only prose, skipping most markup - usually the most accurate for submission limits.
- Counting the compiled PDF counts what the reader sees but includes figure captions, references, and headers unless you exclude them.
The practical approach
- For a quick estimate, paste your body text into the word counter - it reports words, characters, sentences, and reading time live.
- For a strict submission limit, decide what the venue counts: does the limit include the abstract? References? Captions? Read the call for papers.
- Count the relevant sections only, excluding the bibliography and any appendices that don't count toward the limit.
What usually does not count
- The reference list / bibliography.
- Figure and table captions (venue-dependent).
- Author names and affiliations.
- Appendices (venue-dependent).
When in doubt, the safest move is to be slightly under the limit using the strictest reasonable interpretation.