750 Words is a website where you write 750 words every day, privately, and it counts them for you. It has been running since 2009 and still has a loyal following among writers, journalers and people doing morning pages. It's paid after a 30-day trial, which is why people regularly go looking for a free alternative. Here's what it does today, why the number is 750, and which other tools work for the same habit.
Quick answer
750words.com is a private daily writing site built around morning pages: write 750 words a day, roughly three pages. As of November 2026 it has a 30-day free trial, then costs $5 a month (Standard) or $10 a month (Fancy). Free alternatives include 3 Pages Daily, Obsidian, Penzu, Diarium and paper.
What is 750 Words?
750 Words (750words.com) is a small, independent journaling website run by Buster Benson and Kellianne. According to the site's own about page, it was built in 2009 "to encourage a daily private journaling practice inspired by morning pages from The Artist's Way."
The idea is simple. You open the site, write until the counter reaches 750, and the day is done. Writing is meant to be stream of consciousness: unfiltered, with no attention paid to grammar, spelling or making sense. Nothing is public, and stats and achievement badges build up as the days add up.
What it costs and includes, as listed on 750words.com in November 2026:
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | $0 for 30 days, no credit card | Full access |
| Standard | $5/month | Unlimited writing, stats and insights, achievement badges, search and export, themes |
| Fancy | $10/month | Everything in Standard, plus AI-powered insights, community access, priority support |
A few details stand out. Accounts created before June 12, 2013 were given lifetime free access when the site introduced paid plans. Students and people facing financial hardship can ask for a discounted membership. The site says 1% of revenue goes to carbon removal, and its privacy policy states that writing is never used to train AI. The AI features on the Fancy plan can be switched off.
What 750 Words does best: it makes the word count the whole game. The counter, stats and badges turn a vague intention to "write more" into a target you either hit or didn't,.
Why 750 words? The link to morning pages
The number comes from morning pages, the practice Julia Cameron describes in The Artist's Way: three pages of longhand writing, first thing in the morning, about anything at all. 750 Words translates that into a typed equivalent, describing its practice as "writing three pages (roughly 750 words) of stream-of-consciousness."
The arithmetic holds up reasonably well. A handwritten, ruled letter-size page holds around 250 words, so three pages comes to about 750. Typed in a 12-point font, 750 words is about one and a half pages single-spaced, or three pages double-spaced.
Why that length works is the more useful question. The first page of a morning writing session is usually surface material: the to-do list, yesterday's annoyance, how tired you are. The second page is where it starts to loosen. The third page is where the unexpected sentences turn up. Stopping at 200 words skips the part the practice exists for, and that's the whole argument for a fixed length rather than "write until you're done." It's the same mechanism behind freewriting: keep the pen moving long enough for the editing voice to give up.
The best 750 Words alternatives
Each of these supports the same daily habit. The main difference is whether you count words or pages, and whether your writing lives in a browser, on your device, or on paper. Prices are as of November 2026.
1. 3 Pages Daily — three pages instead of 750 words
3 Pages Daily is the page-count version of the same idea. Every day opens with three blank pages keyed to the date, with no folders or templates in the way, and each page has no length cap. Stats track words written, days journaled, pages completed and your current streak, with a words-per-day chart and achievements.
It runs in any browser and is free forever with three pages a day, including voice recording with live transcription in Chrome or Safari 14.1+ for mornings when talking is easier than typing. Premium ($5.99 a month or $49.99 a year, 7-day free trial) adds unlimited pages a day, more themes and fonts, and batch export. A separate native morning pages app for iPhone, iPad and Mac keeps entries on the device behind a four-digit passcode.
Best for: morning pages done the way Cameron counted them, in pages, on a free plan.
2. Obsidian with a daily note — free and file-based
Obsidian is free for personal use and stores everything as plain Markdown files on your own device, on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Its Daily Notes feature creates a dated file each morning, and the status bar shows a live word count. Sync between devices is optional at $4 a month billed yearly.
Best for: people who want their 750 words as text files that will open in anything, forever.
3. Penzu — a free browser journal
Penzu is a long-running private journal in the browser, with iOS and Android apps. The free tier covers daily writing; Pro ($29.99 a year) adds encryption locking, tags, PDF export and prompts.
Best for: a straightforward web diary with nothing to install.
4. Diarium — a daily word-count goal, no subscription
Diarium tracks each entry's word count against a daily goal, which is the closest built-in match to 750 Words' counter. It's free on Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac, with Pro as a one-time purchase per platform; on Windows the app is paid and includes Pro. No account is needed.
Best for: a word-count target without a monthly fee.
5. Day One — the polished option
Day One's free plan includes unlimited entries, daily prompts and end-to-end encryption, limited to one device and one photo per entry. Paid plans start at $49.99 a year. It's a full journal app rather than a writing-sprint tool, so the word count is less central. Our best journal apps roundup compares it with seven others.
Best for: people who want morning pages and a long-term life journal in one place.
6. A notebook or a plain document
Cameron's original method needs nothing but paper. A blank document with a word counter works for typists. The trade-off is that nothing tracks your streak or keeps the archive organized and searchable.
Best for: anyone who wants zero tools between them and the page.
750 Words vs the alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Free option | Paid price | Counts | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 750 Words | 30-day trial | $5 or $10/month | Words (750 target) | Browser |
| 3 Pages Daily | Free forever, 3 pages a day | $5.99/month or $49.99/year | Pages, plus words in stats | Browser + iPhone, iPad, Mac app |
| Obsidian | Free for personal use | Sync $4/month billed yearly | Words (status bar) | Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android |
| Penzu | Free tier | Pro $29.99/year | — | Browser, iOS, Android |
| Diarium | Free on most platforms | One-time Pro per platform | Words, with a daily goal | Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Day One | Free Basic plan | From $49.99/year | — | Apple devices, Android, Windows, web |
| Paper | Free | — | Pages | Anywhere |
Words or pages: which count works better?
Both work, and they suit different temperaments.
A word count is precise. You know exactly how far along you are, and 750 is a clean finish line. The risk is watching the counter instead of the page: some writers find themselves padding sentences at 680 words, which is the opposite of the unfiltered writing the practice is for.
A page count is looser. Three pages feels like a space to fill rather than a quota, and you look at the counter less because there isn't one in your face. The risk is a short page on a hard day, which is still a page.
If you've used 750 Words for years and love the stats, there's little reason to leave. If the subscription is what's stopping you, the habit transfers easily to any of the free options above. For ideas to get the first lines down, try these morning journal prompts, then let the second and third pages go wherever they go.
Ethan Morales
Work, family, and good ideas rarely arrive one at a time, so I'm interested in capturing what matters before it disappears.
Facts and pricing in this article were last verified on November 9, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, at a brisk pace. Speaking 750 words in 5 minutes means 150 words a minute, which is quick but normal for relaxed conversation. At a slower, presentation pace of 120 words a minute it takes just over 6 minutes. Dictating a journal entry usually lands somewhere in between, so a spoken 750-word entry takes roughly 5 to 7 minutes.
In US English, 750 is written "seven hundred fifty." British English usually adds "and": "seven hundred and fifty." When the number starts a sentence, style guides recommend spelling it out, so "Seven hundred fifty words a day" rather than "750 words a day." Inside a sentence, numerals are fine in most informal writing.
Usually five or six. A typical paragraph in an essay runs 100 to 150 words, so 750 words fits an introduction, three or four body paragraphs and a conclusion. A daily freewriting session at 750 words has no paragraph target at all: some days it's one long block, other days a dozen short bursts.
500 to 750 words is about one to one and a half pages single-spaced, or two to three pages double-spaced, in a 12-point font. Handwritten on a ruled letter-size page, it's roughly two to three pages. At 40 words a minute, typing it takes about 12 to 19 minutes; read aloud at around 130 words a minute, it takes about 4 to 6 minutes.
As of November 2026, 750words.com offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. After that, the Standard membership is $5 a month and includes unlimited writing, stats, badges, search, export and themes. The Fancy membership is $10 a month and adds AI insights, community access and priority support. Accounts created before June 12, 2013 kept lifetime free access.
Yes. 3 Pages Daily's web app is free forever with three pages a day, a words-written count and streaks in its stats. Obsidian with a daily note is free for personal use. Penzu has a free browser journal, and Diarium is free on most platforms with a daily word-count goal. A plain document or a paper notebook also works.
Because 750 words is roughly three pages, the length of Julia Cameron's morning pages from The Artist's Way. 750words.com was built in 2009 around that practice, and describes it as writing three pages, roughly 750 words, of stream-of-consciousness each day. The length is long enough to get past surface thoughts and short enough to finish before breakfast.
