How to turn session edits into a CriticMarkup review note in Obsidian
As of October 2026, Obsidian File recovery lets you compare note snapshots and copy a saved version.
How to sort notes by word count in Obsidian Bases
As of October 2026, Bases has no word count field or function. The core Word count plugin shows the count of the active note only. To sort or sum word counts in a base, the count must be a note property.
Word Count Property has Pro, and $15 one time turns it on in all 129 plugins.
Background
The forum request "Bases: Word count function / property" opened on 6 August 2025. It has 30 likes and 16 posts. An older topic from August 2020, "Word count based on preview/rendered text, not editor text", has 36 likes and 24 posts.
3 ways to do it
The core Word count plugin
Word count is a core plugin. It shows the number of words and characters of the active note. On desktop it appears in the status bar, and on mobile at the top of the right sidebar.
It supports Chinese, Japanese and Korean text, which does not use spaces between words.
- limits
- It counts one note at a time. A base cannot read the count, so you cannot sort or total it.
The file size field in a base
Bases lists
file.sizeas a number field, the size of the file in bytes. Add it as a column and sort by it to find long and short notes.- limits
- Bytes are not words. Properties, links and code add bytes, and a character outside English can take more than one byte.
Word Count Property from this site
Word Count Property writes a numeric
wordCountandreadingTimeMinutesproperty to the notes that you opt in. A base can then sort, filter, group and summarize both values.You opt in one note at a time with a command or a
wordCountTrackedmarker. The plugin refreshes the count after edits, and the count and reading time are free.- limits
- It counts the Markdown source, so code and link destinations count. A local preview of the rendered text count needs Pro.
Open larger MIT · no telemetry · core features free
Add word count columns with Word Count Property
Install Word Count Property from Community plugins and enable it. It needs Obsidian 1.13.4 or newer and the Bases core plugin.
Open a note and run
Toggle word count tracking for the current notefrom the command palette.Check that
wordCountTracked,wordCountandreadingTimeMinutesappear in the note properties.Open a Bases table and add the
wordCountandreadingTimeMinutescolumns.Sort, filter or summarize the columns, for example a sum of all words in a folder of chapters.
Common questions
Can a Bases formula count the words in a note?
Not as of October 2026. The Bases functions page lists file fields such as file.size, file.links and file.tags, and none of them holds the note text. A word count must be in a property before a base can use it.
Can I get the total word count of a folder in Bases?
Yes, when each note has a numeric word count property. Filter the base to the folder and add a sum summary to the column. Word Count Property writes wordCount as a number, so the sum works.
Does every note get a word count property?
No. Word Count Property changes only notes with the wordCountTracked marker set to the YAML boolean true. It refuses to start when a note already has wordCount or readingTimeMinutes, so it does not replace another workflow.
Sources
- “Forum request for a word count function or property in Bases”forum.obsidian.md
- “Forum, Word count based on preview/rendered text, not editor text”forum.obsidian.md
- “Obsidian Help, Word count”help.obsidian.md
- “Obsidian Help, Bases functions”help.obsidian.md
- “Obsidian Help, Table view in Bases”help.obsidian.md
You can now sort notes by word count.
You can now sort notes by word count.
This guide uses Word Count Property. Pro adds "Local reading preview". One payment of $15 turns on Pro in 129 plugins.
This guide uses Word Count Property. Pro adds "Local reading preview". One payment of $15 turns on Pro in 129 plugins.
The plugin in this guide
Word Count Property
Sort, filter and sum your notes by length in Bases with numeric word count properties.