A simple example
Hello world contains 2 words, 11 characters including the space, and 10 characters without whitespace. Punctuation counts as characters but does not become a word by itself.
Compare character counting methods, including why an emoji can use more than one code point.
Word boundaries depend on the language
Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Lao, Khmer, and Burmese use Intl.Segmenter when available. Other text uses Unicode letter and number matching, retaining apostrophes and hyphens within words. Mixed text and different browser dictionaries can produce different totals.
Read the Intl.Segmenter reference.
Characters and spaces
The workshop counts Unicode code points. Its without-spaces count removes whitespace, including tabs and line breaks. A combined emoji or accented sequence may contain several code points even when it looks like one symbol.
Use your destination platform's own counter when it applies different limits or weighting.
Reading and speaking time
The workshop estimates reading at 225 words per minute and speaking at 130, rounding up to whole minutes for non-empty text. A 450-word draft therefore shows 2 reading minutes and 4 speaking minutes.
Choose a different pace in the words-per-minute calculator or plan a five-minute speech.