# How Google Docs Counts Words

> Google Docs counts words much like other word processors, with a few differences, notably how it treats dashes. It shows pages, words, characters and characters excluding spaces in its Word count dialog. Behaviour can change between releases, so verify edge cases in your own document.

- URL: https://wordcounter.pk/guides/how-google-docs-counts-words/
- Type: Guide
- Updated: 2026-10-15

**Short answer:** Google Docs counts space-separated words, treats hyphenated terms as one word and tends to treat em dashes as separators, so “word—word” counts as two. It has options to count footnotes and to show the count while typing.

## What Docs counts

The Word count dialog reports pages, words, characters and characters excluding spaces for the whole document or for selected text. Body text, headings, lists and tables count. Headers and footers are not included. An option labelled “Include footnotes” lets you count them, and another keeps a running word count on screen as you type.

## Where Docs differs from Word

The largest difference is the em dash. Word joins words connected by an unspaced em dash into one token, while Docs generally counts them as two words. Heavy users of em dashes will see a higher total in Docs than in Word. Differences with symbols and spaced dashes also appear. Over a long document the gap is small but can matter near a limit. See [How Microsoft Word Counts Words](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/how-microsoft-word-counts-words/) for Word’s side of this comparison.

## Other points

- Hyphenated words count as one in both.
- Numbers count as words; see [Do Numbers Count as Words?](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/do-numbers-count-as-words/).
- Selecting text shows the count for the selection.
- Documents imported from Word may shift slightly because of conversion.

## Matching Docs with this counter

WordCounter.pk counts an em dash as a separator, like Docs, and requires a letter or digit in a word, so standalone symbols do not count. For ordinary text the totals will agree closely. If your submission portal uses its own counter, trust that figure. To learn how to open the dialog, see [How to Count Words in Google Docs](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/how-to-count-words-in-google-docs/); to understand our approach, see [How Word Count Is Calculated](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/how-word-count-is-calculated/).

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Google Docs count words in footnotes?

Only if you tick Include footnotes in the dialog.

### Why is my Docs count higher than Word’s?

Em dashes without spaces are the usual cause.

### Does Docs count words in headers?

No.

## Related

- [How to Count Words in Google Docs](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/how-to-count-words-in-google-docs/index.md): Menu, shortcut and live count for Google Docs.
- [How Microsoft Word Counts Words](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/how-microsoft-word-counts-words/index.md): Word’s counting rules for hyphens, dashes, symbols, footnotes and text boxes.
- [Word Counter](https://wordcounter.pk/index.md): The main free word counter for English, Urdu and Roman Urdu.
- [Case Converter](https://wordcounter.pk/case-converter/index.md): Convert text to upper, lower, title, sentence, camel, snake and kebab case.
- [What Is a Word Counter?](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/what-is-a-word-counter/index.md): Definition, how a word counter works and the units it measures.
- [How Word Count Is Calculated](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/how-word-count-is-calculated/index.md): The step-by-step logic behind word counts, with edge-case examples.
- [What Counts as One Word](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/what-counts-as-one-word/index.md): Quick-reference rules for contractions, hyphens, numbers, URLs and symbols.
- [Do Hyphenated Words Count as One or Two?](https://wordcounter.pk/guides/do-hyphenated-words-count-as-one-or-two/index.md): How hyphens, en dashes and em dashes affect word counts.

## Images

- ![How Google Docs Counts Words: Google Docs’ word-counting behaviour compared with Word. (WordCounter.pk cover graphic)](https://wordcounter.pk/img/how-google-docs-counts-words/how-google-docs-counts-words-cover-1200.webp)
- ![What this guide covers: What Docs counts; Where Docs differs from Word; Other points](https://wordcounter.pk/img/how-google-docs-counts-words/how-google-docs-counts-words-how-it-works-1200.webp)
- ![Quick facts: How Google Docs Counts Words: Does Google Docs count words in footnotes?; Why is my Docs count higher than Word’s?; Does Docs count words in headers?](https://wordcounter.pk/img/how-google-docs-counts-words/how-google-docs-counts-words-reference-1200.webp)
- ![Map showing how How Google Docs Counts Words connects to Writing Guides, How to Count Words in Google Docs, How Microsoft Word Counts Words, Word Counter and more on WordCounter.pk](https://wordcounter.pk/img/how-google-docs-counts-words/how-google-docs-counts-words-related-tools-map-1200.webp)
- ![Quick answer card: Does Google Docs count words in footnotes? Only if you tick Include footnotes in the dialog.](https://wordcounter.pk/img/how-google-docs-counts-words/how-google-docs-counts-words-quick-answer-1200.webp)