Count vowels and consonants
Counts vowels, consonants, letters and digits in any text.
Press the button and you get four numbers: vowels, consonants, total letters and total digits.
Who actually needs this
It is a niche count, but the people who need it need it precisely.
- Puzzle and game players. Wordle strategy, Scrabble racks, hangman, crosswords — knowing the vowel to consonant ratio of a word or a set of letters is part of the game.
- Teachers and students. Phonics exercises, spelling lessons and early-reading worksheets are built around counting vowels and consonants.
- Linguists and hobbyists. Analysing the sound structure of text, or checking constructed languages and poetry for vowel balance.
- Poets. Assonance and euphony come from vowel patterns; counting them is one way to check the music of a line.
- Developers testing. A quick, verifiable count to check that a function does what it should.
What counts as a vowel
The letters A, E, I, O and U are counted as vowels. Y is deliberately not, because it is a vowel only sometimes — "sky" yes, "yes" no — and there is no reliable rule to decide automatically, so counting it consistently one way would be wrong half the time. If your exercise treats Y as a vowel, add the Y count from the letter total yourself.
Both cases count the same, so "A" and "a" are both vowels. Accented vowels from other languages — á, é, ü — are counted as vowels too, and Russian vowels are recognised, so the tool is not limited to plain English.
Consonants are simply the letters that are not vowels, so the two always add up to the total letter count. Digits are counted separately, and punctuation and spaces are ignored.
Doing it without this tool
Excel: counting one vowel is =LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(LOWER(A1),"a","")). Counting all five means
five of those added together, and a sixth expression for total letters — a formula long enough that most people copy it
wrong at least once.
Word: no such count exists.
Command line: grep -o '[aeiouAEIOU]' file.txt | wc -l for vowels;
grep -o '[a-zA-Z]' file.txt | wc -l for letters.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your text is never uploaded — open DevTools, Network tab, and you will see zero requests while you use this tool.
How to use it
- Paste or type your text into the box.
- Press "Count vowels".
- Read the four figures: vowels, consonants, letters and digits.
- If your exercise counts Y as a vowel, adjust using the letter total.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
No. Y is a vowel only in some words and there is no reliable automatic rule, so counting it either way would be wrong much of the time. It is included in the total letter count, so you can add it yourself if your exercise needs it.
Yes. Accented Latin vowels like á and ü are counted as vowels, and Russian vowels are recognised too, so the count is not limited to plain English.
Yes, always. Consonants are defined as the letters that are not vowels, so the two figures sum to the total letter count.
No. Only letters and digits are counted; spaces, punctuation and symbols are ignored.