How to Character Count PDF? (6 Effective Ways)

There are multiple scenarios when you need to character count PDF contents. Common examples include writing SEO content, an academic paper or writing a business proposal. All these things have critical requirements for different sections and the overall length.

While text editors provide a built-in feature to count characters, there is no such feature in PDF readers or editors.

In this guide, we will introduce the 6 most effective ways to count the characters of PDF documents. We will share methods made for different use case scenarios here, including scanned PDFs, PDF forms, multiple PDFs, etc.

Part 1. Character Count PDF With UPDF AI

If you want to count characters in a PDF document, then the easiest method will be using UPDF. UPDF is a PDF editor that brings many features, including its UPDF AI, which makes counting characters in PDF documents very easy.

The process is very simple, where you can copy PDF contents and paste them into UPDF AI with your prompt like "character count for the following content: [Paste your content here]."

UPDF AI will take care of the rest, so you must download UPDF to experience the easiest process of counting PDF contents.

Step 1: Run the UPDF application by double-clicking its desktop icon, then click "Open File" to select and open a PDF document. Use the cursor to select content inside the PDF by clicking, holding, and dragging it over the content. Click "Copy text" to copy selected content in a PDF document.

Step 2: Open UPDF AI by clicking its icon from the bottom right and clicking "Chat" from the top. Now, you can use prompt like "character count for the following content: [Paste your content here]" in UPDF and hit "Send." UPDF AI will immediately provide you with the character count of the content that you pasted.

Part 2.  Character Count PDF With Converting PDF to Word (4 Ways)

Converting your PDF document to Word makes counting characters very simple. It is because it supports multiple use cases by individually converting Word files, converting scanned PDFs to Word, or combining multiple PDFs to Word to count their characters at once.

Additionally, UPDF lets you count characters in your PDF forms, so you must download UPDF on your Mac, Windows PC, iOS devices, and Android smartphones and tablets to experience its features.

Way 1. Character Count Normal PDF

Step 1: Launch the UPDF application on your PC by double-clicking its icon, then click "File" > "Open" to open the PDF document to count characters from. In the reader view of that PDF file, you will click "Export PDF" > "Word" and then follow the steps on your screen to convert your PDF to a docx file.

Step 2: Double-click that Word file to open it in MS Word on your PC, and you will see the word counter in the bottom left.

Click it to expand details and see the character count of the PD contents. If you want to see the count of selected content only, you will select the contents first and then open these details.

Way 2. Character Count Scanned PDF

Step 1: The first step will be converting scanned PDF into editable PDF, so you may use a tool to count characters. So, open the UPDF application and that PDF by clicking "Open File." Now, click "Recognize text using OCR" > "Perform OCR" and follow the steps on your screen to save the converted file.

Step 2: Wait as UPDF processes OCR on your file and converts it into editable PDF. When the OCRed file opens automatically, you will click "Export PDF" > "Word" and then follow your on-screen steps to save that document in docx format.

Step 3: Now double-click that Word file to open it in MS Word on your PC and click the word counter option from the bottom left. It will display the words, characters, and all other details about the contents of your PDF.

Otherwise, you may copy contents from that Word file and paste them into UPDF AI to count characters.

Way 3. Character Count All PDFs at Once

Step 1: Start UPDF on PC by using its desktop icon and click "Batch" > "Combine" > "Add Files." Now, select all the PDF files to combine into one. After you add all files, you may click "Apply," and all of them will be combined into one PDF file as you follow the steps on your screen to save that PDF on your device.

Step 2: In the UPDF interface, you will press "Ctrl + O" to open that combined PDF and then click "Export PDF" > "Word" and save it as a docx file by following your steps on screen.

Step 3: Now open the Word file that contains the contents of all PDFs combined by double-clicking it. It will open in MS Word, where you will use the same word counting built-in feature to see how many characters there are in total from the contents of all PDFs combined.

You may copy all contents from the Word file and paste it into UPDF AI with your prompt to count characters in it.

Way 4. Character Count in PDF Form

Step 1: Launch the UPDF application on your computer by double-clicking its desktop icon. Click "Open File" to open your PDF form, and click "Export PDF," then select "Word" to convert it into Word docx format. You will need to follow the on-screen file-saving steps to select a location and set the name for the converted docx file.

Step 2: Now, you can double-click the Word file to open it and click the word counting feature to see document stats. There, you will see the character count of that PDF document.

Another way is to copy contents from a Word document and paste them with your prompt in UPDF AI for effortless counting.

UPDF has many other features that focus on multiple PDF operations, including the following:

• UPDF Cloud helps store your PDFs in a dedicated online storage and it syncs your documents to all your devices.
• Protect PDF documents by adding encrypted PDF permission and opening passwords.
• Edit PDF documents with complete control over new and existing text content, images, and links.
• Annotate PDF to take notes by text comments, highlighting, bold, italic, strikethrough, pencil, highlighter, stickers, and many other tools.
• Convert PDF documents to other popular document formats like PPT, Word, TXT, HTML, Excel, image, etc. and vice versa.
• Batch Process PDF documents in bulk to perform 6 different functions for added productivity.
• Organize PDF documents by merging or splitting files, extracting, inserting, or removing pages from PDFs.
• OCR PDF to create editable PDF documents from images of text and scanned PDFs.
• Compress PDF documents to reduce their size without compromising on the content quality.
• Fill and Sign PDF forms, create new forms, edit existing PDF forms, etc.

Read more about AI-powered ChatGPT-like features of UPDF in this How-To Geek UPDF review. Or you may watch this YouTube video tutorial about UPDF to learn about its benefits and use its different features. However, if you want a hands-on experience with all the features and functionalities of UPDF, you must download its application to try it yourself.

Part 3. Count Characters in PDF Online Via Google Drive

Sometimes, you need to count the characters in your PDF document online, especially when you are not working on your workstation.

In such cases, you may use Google Drive to count characters in a PDF, and this method works well when someone shares the PDF via Google Drive so you can count its characters without downloading it to your offline storage.

Google Drive uses Google Docs to count characters in a PDF by immediately converting it to Docs format with the following steps:

Step 1: Go to the Google Drive Website and click "New" > "File Upload" to select and upload your PDF here. If you already have your PDF saved in Google Drive, then you can skip this step and move directly to the next one.

Step 2: Click "Recent" from the left side menu, and you will see your recently uploaded PDF on top. Click the "Options" button, then go to "Open With" and select "Google Docs". Here, Google Drive will automatically convert the PDF document to a Google Docs file.

Step 3: Wait until your PDF is converted and opened in Google Docs. Now you can click "Tools" > "word count" or press "Ctrl + Shift + C" on your keyboard to display document stats which will include your PDF file character count online.

Final Words

Are you writing something according to a given proposal, and are you required to write within a specific character limit? These scenarios occur when you are writing for an academic paper, SEO, or a corporate document.

In all these conditions, it becomes important to character count PDF documents, and UPDF is the tool that can assist you in every scenario. Whether you want to count characters of a normal PDF, scanned PDF, PDF form, or multiple PDFs combined, UPDF can assist you in every case. as discussed in the methods above. So, download UPDF and effortlessly count characters in your PDF document.