Thesis Word Count Planner

No. These percentages represent common academic practice across many disciplines, but every institution has different expectations. Your graduate school handbook, thesis guidelines, or advisor is the authority. Confirm your chapter targets with your program before starting.

Not necessarily. The length of the literature review varies widely depending on your discipline and research focus. Some fields (especially humanities and social sciences) expect longer reviews. Check your program's exemplar theses to see what's typical in your field, or discuss proportions with your advisor.

This planner calculates targets based on general academic practice, but you can manually edit the "Written" column to track your actual progress against any breakdown you choose. Use these suggestions as a starting point, then adjust based on your advisor's feedback.

No—this tool runs entirely in your browser and does not use cloud storage or cookies. Refresh the page and your numbers will reset. Copy your data to a text file or download it if you need to save your progress between sessions.

It depends on your program. Some graduate schools exclude abstract, front matter, and references from the official word count. Check your thesis guidelines or ask your graduate advisor whether these sections count toward your minimum.

This planner assumes a traditional thesis format (Intro → Literature Review → Methods → Results → Discussion → Conclusion). If your program uses an alternative structure, such as article-based or manuscript format, use the chapter list above to select only the sections that apply to your thesis, and adjust percentages manually as needed.