Text / Analysis
Letter Frequency Counter with Chart
Count each letter in a text and see its share as a bar chart, in any alphabet, with or without telling capitals apart, for frequency analysis of ciphers, word games, and language study.
Letter Frequency Counter with Chart: Every letter in the text is counted, in any script, and the letters are listed from most to least common with their counts and percentages. Digits, spaces, and punctuation are ignored, and accented letters are counted separately from plain ones. Runs 100% locally in your browser with zero server file uploads.
- Category
- Text tools
- Runs
- In your browser
- Cost
- Free · no sign-up
- Availability
- Ready to use
Runs entirely in your browser
Every letter in any alphabet is counted, accented letters separately from plain ones; digits, spaces, and punctuation are left out. Letter frequencies are the starting point for breaking simple substitution ciphers: in English text, e, t, a, o, and i are usually the most common.
Frequency analysis
Arab scholar al-Kindi described frequency analysis in the 9th century: count the symbols in a ciphertext and match the most common ones to the most common letters of the language. Short texts vary a lot, so it works best on a few hundred letters or more.
Try it on a message from the Caesar cipher: the bars keep their shape, shifted along the alphabet.
Pangrams
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the English alphabet, so all 26 bars appear; "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" does the same in fewer letters.
How to use it
- Paste the text.
- Choose whether capitals count separately.
- Read the chart, or copy the counts as a table.
Privacy & limitations
The text is counted in your browser.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
Which letters are most common in English?
In typical English text, e is the most common at about 12%, followed by t, a, o, i, and n.
How does this help with ciphers?
In a simple substitution cipher each letter is always replaced by the same symbol, so the most common symbol in a long message probably stands for e. A Caesar cipher shifts the whole frequency pattern.
Are words counted too?
No; for word counts use the word frequency counter.
Free tool · runs in your browser · no account required