Character Frequency Counter
Type or paste your text below to see how many times every individual character appears, this counts single letters and symbols rather than whole words like the Word Frequency Counter does.
About the Character Frequency Counter
Every single character in the text gets tallied one by one, right in the browser, which is different from the Word Frequency Counter (that one groups whole words, this one breaks things down to the letter, digit and symbol level). The "Total Characters" stat always reflects the raw input length, including spaces, while the table below can hide the space row when "Ignore spaces" is checked so the letter breakdown is easier to scan.
- Ignore case, folds "A" and "a" into a single row (on by default).
- Ignore spaces, drops the space character from the table, though it still counts toward the total (on by default).
- Non-printing characters, newlines and tabs show up in the table as literal
\nand\tso no row ever looks blank. - Percentage, each character's count as a share of the characters shown in the table.
What the percentage column is actually a share of
The percentage in each row is calculated against the total of whatever's currently shown in the table, not the raw input length above it. With "Ignore spaces" checked, the space count is excluded from that denominator too, so every visible row's percentage adds up to 100% across just the non-space characters, not the full original text including spaces. Unchecking "Ignore spaces" brings the space row back into both the table and its own percentage share, changing every other row's percentage slightly since the denominator grows.
A genuine use case: frequency analysis
Letter frequency is the foundation of classical cryptanalysis, a simple substitution cipher can often be partially cracked just by comparing the frequency of each symbol in the ciphertext against the known frequency of letters in ordinary English (E, T, and A are the most common letters in typical English text, in roughly that order). Pasting a suspected substitution-ciphered message in here and sorting by count gives a rough starting map, the most frequent symbol in the ciphertext is a reasonable first guess for whichever plaintext letter appears most often, a genuinely useful entry point into solving a cipher puzzle by hand rather than purely a curiosity.
Case folding has its own small edge cases
"Ignore case" uses standard lowercase folding, which handles the overwhelming majority of text correctly but has a few known quirks in specific languages, German's sharp S (ß) doesn't have a single-character uppercase equivalent in the same way most letters do, and folding behavior for it can vary depending on the exact rules applied. For text in English and most Latin-alphabet languages this distinction never comes up, it's only relevant for a narrow set of language-specific edge cases.
Where letter frequency shows up outside cryptography
Typography and font design lean on letter frequency data too, deciding which glyphs deserve the most attention during kerning refinement often starts with knowing which letters actually appear most often in real text for the target language. Word game strategy is another practical use, knowing which letters are common versus rare informs which tiles or guesses are worth prioritizing in something like Scrabble or Wordle, where letter frequency knowledge translates directly into a better opening move or a smarter blank-tile placement.
Sort order when two characters tie on count
Rows are sorted purely by count, highest first, and when two characters share the exact same count, they keep the relative order they first appeared in while being tallied rather than being resorted alphabetically or by any other secondary rule. This is a stable sort, not a random one, running the same text through twice always produces the same tie-breaking order, just not necessarily an alphabetically obvious one at a glance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do the percentages in the table add up to 100% of my original text?
Only if "Ignore spaces" is unchecked. With spaces ignored, the percentage is calculated against the total of non-space characters shown in the table, not the full raw input length, so the visible rows still add up to 100%, just of a smaller total.
Can this tool help with a substitution cipher puzzle?
Yes. Letter frequency is the foundation of classical frequency analysis, comparing which symbols appear most often in a ciphertext against known English letter frequencies (E, T, and A being most common) gives a reasonable starting point for guessing which symbol maps to which letter.
How is this different from the Word Frequency Counter?
This tool breaks text down to individual letters, digits, and symbols. The Word Frequency Counter groups whole words instead. Use this one for letter-level analysis like cipher-solving or typography, and the word-level tool for seeing which words appear most often in a piece of writing.
Why do newlines and tabs show up as \n and \t in the table?
These are non-printing characters that would otherwise leave a row looking blank or confusing. Displaying them as their literal escape sequence makes it clear exactly which invisible character each row's count refers to.
How are ties broken when two characters have the same count?
Rows are sorted purely by count, highest first. When two characters tie, they keep the order they first appeared in while being counted, since the sort is stable, rather than being resorted alphabetically. Running the same text through twice always produces the same tie-breaking order.
Is letter frequency actually useful for anything besides curiosity?
Yes. It's the foundation of classical cipher-breaking, it informs typography and kerning decisions during font design, and it's useful strategy knowledge for word games like Scrabble or Wordle, where knowing common versus rare letters shapes better guesses and tile choices.