diff --git a/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts b/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts
index 528222f5f..85850e288 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { ResponseError } from '@elastic/elasticsearch/lib/errors'
 import { BuiltQuery, ESBuilder, esBuilder } from 'elastic-ts'
 import { EntityType } from '../datalayer/pubsub'
 import { BulkActionType } from '../generated/graphql'
+import { wordsCount } from '../utils/helpers'
 import {
   DateFilter,
   FieldFilter,
@@ -245,6 +246,7 @@ export const createPage = async (
         ...page,
         updatedAt: new Date(),
         savedAt: new Date(),
+        wordsCount: page.wordsCount ?? wordsCount(page.content),
       },
       refresh: 'wait_for', // wait for the index to be refreshed before returning
     })
diff --git a/packages/api/test/resolvers/popular_reads.test.ts b/packages/api/test/resolvers/popular_reads.test.ts
index 22d216b6e..a8d2953fc 100644
--- a/packages/api/test/resolvers/popular_reads.test.ts
+++ b/packages/api/test/resolvers/popular_reads.test.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-import { createTestUser, deleteTestUser } from '../db'
-import { graphqlRequest, request } from '../util'
 import { expect } from 'chai'
 import 'mocha'
-import { User } from '../../src/entity/user'
 import { getPageByParam } from '../../src/elastic/pages'
+import { User } from '../../src/entity/user'
+import { createTestUser, deleteTestUser } from '../db'
+import { graphqlRequest, request } from '../util'
 
 describe('PopularReads API', () => {
   let user: User
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ describe('PopularReads API', () => {
       expect(page?.url).to.eq(
         'https://blog.omnivore.app/p/getting-started-with-omnivore'
       )
+      expect(page?.wordsCount).to.eq(1155)
     })
 
     it('responds status code 500 when invalid user', async () => {