Live counts for the highlighted text in your Visual Studio Code editor — characters, words, letters, numbers, and special characters, displayed in the status bar.
Selection Count puts a fast, configurable readout of what you've selected right in the status bar. Pick exactly which counts you want to see and they update as you change the selection.
Demo
Features
- Character count — total characters in the selection (including whitespace).
- Word count — whitespace-separated tokens in the selection.
- Letter count — any Unicode letter, including accented characters like
éand non-Latin scripts. - Number count — any Unicode number, including superscripts like
², fractions like½, and non-Latin numerals. - Special character count — every character that is not a letter, number, or whitespace.
- Configurable display — pick which of the five counts appear in the status bar from
Selection Countsettings; the others stay hidden. - Multi-selection aware — counts aggregate across every active selection range.
- Status bar toggle — quickly show or hide the entire Selection Count readout from the Command Palette.
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
Selection Count: Toggle Visibility |
Show or hide the Selection Count status bar item. |
Selection Count: Configure Display |
Pick which counts (characters, words, letters, numbers, special) appear in the status bar. |
All commands are available through the Command Palette (search for "Selection Count").
Settings
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
selectionCount.show.characters |
true |
Include character count in the status bar readout. |
selectionCount.show.words |
true |
Include word count in the status bar readout. |
selectionCount.show.letters |
false |
Include letter count (Unicode letters) in the status bar readout. |
selectionCount.show.numbers |
false |
Include number count (Unicode numbers — digits, fractions, superscripts, etc.) in the status bar readout. |
selectionCount.show.specialCharacters |
false |
Include special-character count (everything that is not a letter, number, or whitespace) in the status bar readout. |
selectionCount.enabled |
true |
Show the Selection Count status bar item. |
selectionCount.format |
"text" |
How counts are rendered in the status bar. "text" for full words, "icons" for VS Code codicons. |
Requirements
- Visual Studio Code 1.85 or later.
Issues and feedback
Please file issues and feature requests on GitHub.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, the build/test commands, and the issue-first workflow.
License
MIT