When Word Count Stops Working
Getting it back, and why the numbers disagree.
The Short Answer
If the count has vanished, it has almost certainly been switched off in the status bar rather than broken. Right-click the bar along the bottom of the window and tick Word Count.
If it is showing but disagrees with someone else's number, nothing is broken at all — the two tools are counting different things, which is explained further down.
The Count Has Disappeared
Work through these in order:
- Right-click the status bar and check whether Word Count is ticked. This fixes it most of the time.
- If the whole status bar is missing, the window may be in a view that hides it. Switch back to Print Layout.
- Use Ctrl+Shift+G to open the full word count dialog. If that shows a number, the count works and only the status bar display is affected.
The Count Has Stopped Updating
On a long document Word recalculates when it gets a chance rather than on every keystroke, so a lag of a few seconds is normal and not a fault.
If it has genuinely frozen, an add-in is the usual cause. Close Word, press the Windows key and R, type winword /safe and press enter. Safe mode loads no add-ins. If the count behaves there, re-enable your add-ins one at a time to find the offender.
Why Two Tools Give Different Numbers
This is the part that causes the most anxiety, usually the night before a deadline, and it is not a bug.
| Content | Word status bar | Typical online counter |
|---|---|---|
| Body text | Counted | Counted |
| Footnotes and endnotes | Not by default | Counted if pasted |
| Headers and footers | Not counted | Counted if pasted |
| Text boxes | Not by default | Counted if pasted |
| Hyphenated words | Usually one word | Usually one word |
A 200-word gap between two counts is almost always footnotes. Neither tool is lying to you.
What Actually Counts Toward Your Limit
No software knows your rules. The limit is set by your institution, journal or client, and only their brief settles it.
The common conventions: in-text citations normally count, because they sit inside your sentences. Reference lists and bibliographies normally do not. Appendices and footnotes vary enormously between departments. Titles and abstracts are usually excluded but often specified separately.
If the brief does not say, ask. Guessing wrong by a few hundred words is a worse outcome than one email.
When You Just Need a Number
If you are counting a passage rather than a whole document, or Word is being uncooperative and the deadline is not moving, paste the text into the Word Counter. It shows words, characters, sentences and paragraphs, updating as you type, with no signup.
It runs entirely in your browser, so an unpublished manuscript or a confidential draft is not uploaded anywhere.
Count words in your browser →Frequently Asked Questions
Why has the word count disappeared from the bottom of Word?
The status bar is customisable and the count can be switched off, sometimes by an update or a profile change rather than by you. Right-click anywhere on the status bar and a list of available items appears with ticks beside the visible ones. Click Word Count to bring it back.
Why has the count stopped updating as I type?
On long documents Word recalculates lazily and the status bar can lag well behind. It is usually still counting, just not showing you the new number promptly. If it has stopped entirely, an add-in is the usual culprit — starting Word in safe mode will tell you within a minute.
Why does my word count differ from my tutor's or my colleague's?
Because the two tools are counting different things. Word excludes text boxes, headers, footers and footnotes from the status-bar figure by default, while many online counters count every word you paste in. Neither is wrong. What matters is which rule the person setting the limit is applying.
Do footnotes and citations count toward a word limit?
That is set by your institution or publisher, not by any software. In-text citations usually count because they sit in your sentences. Reference lists usually do not. Footnotes vary widely. Check the actual brief before trusting any number, because no tool can know your rules.
How do I count just one section?
Select the text you want and Word shows the selected count alongside the document total. If you only need a quick figure for a passage, pasting it into a browser counter is faster and avoids disturbing your document.