ParrotNotes

Filler Word Counter

Talk for a minute or paste a transcript and count your um, uh, like and other filler words, with your words per minute and the fillers marked in the text.

Live mode works in Chrome, Edge and Safari. Firefox has no speech recognition: paste a transcript there.

Speaking time: 0:00 / 5:00

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Heads up: browser speech recognition often leaves "um" and "uh" out of its text, so live mode undercounts those sounds. Words like "you know", "like" and "so" come through. For an exact count, paste a verbatim transcript.

Up to 5 minutes per take. Recognition is done by your browser's speech service (Google's in Chrome, Microsoft's in Edge, Apple's in Safari). ParrotNotes does not receive your audio or your text, and nothing is kept after you leave the page.

How to count your filler words

Two ways in: talk now, or bring a transcript you already have.

  1. 1

    Talk, or paste

    In Speak live, pick your language, press Start and give a short talk, a pitch or the answer to an interview question, up to 5 minutes. In Paste a transcript, drop in the text of a call or speech and, if you know it, how long it ran.

  2. 2

    Stop and read the total

    Press Stop or Count. You get the number of fillers, fillers per minute, your words per minute and the share of your words that were fillers.

  3. 3

    See which ones you lean on

    The breakdown lists each filler with its count. Most people have one or two favorites, and those are the ones worth working on first.

  4. 4

    Check the marked text

    Fillers are highlighted in your text and possible fillers are underlined, so you can see where they cluster: at the start of answers, after a question, before a number.

Want the words without the counting? The Dictation Tool turns speech into editable text. To plan how long a talk runs, use the Speech Time Calculator.

Why filler words happen

Speaking means planning the next words while saying the current ones. When the plan runs behind, people fill the gap. The psychologists Herbert Clark and Jean Fox Tree argued in 2002 that "uh" and "um" are not random noise but words speakers choose: "uh" signals a short delay coming, "um" a longer one. That is why they pile up before a hard word, a number or the answer to an unexpected question.

Phrases such as "you know" and "I mean" do a different job: they check that the listener is following or announce a correction. In a conversation, a few of them are normal and listeners barely notice. In a presentation, a voicemail or a recorded pitch, your voice is the only thing to listen to, so the same habits stand out more.

Which words the counter counts

Fillers go into the total. Possible fillers are counted apart, because they are just as often real words.

LanguageFillersPossible fillers
Englishum, uh, erm, er, ah, hmm, you know, I meanlike, so, well, right, okay, basically, actually, literally, totally, kind of, sort of
Germanähm, äh, öh, hm, sag ich mal, ich sag mal, sozusagenweißt du, na ja, halt, also, eigentlich, quasi, irgendwie, genau, ne, gell, oder
Spanisheh, em, mmm, ah, este, o seaeste, pues, bueno, tipo, digamos, entonces, como que, a ver, en plan, vale, ¿sabes?, ¿no?, ¿verdad?
Some possible fillers only count in certain spots: "so" and "well" at the start of a sentence, "right" and "okay" at the end of a clause, "kind of" not after "what" or "a". Those rules read punctuation, so live text, which has little, finds fewer of them.

Using it as a Toastmasters Ah-Counter

In a Toastmasters club meeting, the Ah-Counter listens for "overused words or filler sounds used as a crutch": words such as and, well, but, so and you know, and sounds such as ah, um and er. The role logs overlong pauses, overused words and filler sounds for every speaker, then reports when called on during the evaluation part of the meeting.

This page is not a substitute for that person in the room, but it is a quick way to practice before your speech or to check yourself after it. Run a practice take in Speak live, or paste the transcript of a recorded speech. It counts one speaker at a time, so use it on your own talk, and ask before you run it on anyone else's.

How to use fewer filler words

No trick removes them overnight. These habits help most speakers.

  • Let the pause be silent

    A filler usually replaces a pause. Close your mouth at the end of a sentence and breathe. A one-second silence sounds calmer to a listener than it feels to you.

  • Know your first line and your transitions

    Fillers gather where you are deciding what comes next. Plan how you open, how you move from one point to the next, and how you end.

  • Slow down a little

    Fast speakers run out of planned words sooner. Aim for a pace that leaves room to think; the Speech Time Calculator shows what a given pace means for your word count.

  • Pick one filler at a time

    Use the breakdown to find your most frequent one, work only on that for a week, then count again. Trying to fix all of them at once rarely works.

Practicing to a time limit? The Speech Timer gives you green, yellow and red signals as you go.

See how you talk on real calls

A practice take shows your habits in a quiet room. ParrotNotes records your real calls and meetings, with everyone's consent, and gives you the transcript and a summary, so you can read back how you actually talk. The free plan includes 100 minutes of recording a month.

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Related tools

Filler words FAQ

Sources