Filler Word Counter
Paste a script, email, or document to count hedge and filler words. See which ones appear most and where they sit in your text.
Filler and hedge words dilute writing and speech. They are often invisible to the writer because they creep in through habit, not intention.
Words like "just," "basically," and "actually" rarely add information. "Really" and "very" are supposed to intensify — but they usually weaken. "Obviously" implies the reader is slow. "Honestly" implies you are normally dishonest. Cutting them usually makes writing tighter, clearer, and more confident without changing the meaning.
How we work it out
The tool checks your text against a list of 30 common filler and hedge words using whole-word matching. Count per word is shown with a relative bar, and all instances are highlighted in the text preview below. The percentage is filler words as a share of total word count.
Questions
Should I remove all filler words?
Not necessarily. "Perhaps" and "probably" are appropriate when you are expressing genuine uncertainty. "Very" occasionally earns its place for emphasis. The goal is to use them deliberately, not habitually. If you cannot explain why a word is there, cut it.
What is an acceptable filler word percentage?
There is no universal target, but most professional writing coaches suggest that filler words appearing at more than 3-5% of total word count is worth reviewing. The bigger signal is which words appear most — "just" appearing 15 times in a 500-word email is more actionable than the percentage alone.
Why is "literally" on the list?
Because it is almost never used literally. When someone says "I literally died laughing," they mean "I found it very funny." It has become a filler intensifier. If your use of "literally" is describing something that actually happened literally, it belongs. If not, cut it.
The document can basically wait.