diff --git a/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts b/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts
index a240a42e1..8bc811a04 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/elastic/pages.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import {
 import { client, INDEX_ALIAS } from './index'
 import { EntityType } from '../datalayer/pubsub'
 import { ResponseError } from '@elastic/elasticsearch/lib/errors'
-import wordsCounter from 'word-counting'
+import { wordsCount } from '../utils/helpers'
 
 const appendQuery = (body: SearchBody, query: string): void => {
   body.query.bool.should.push({
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ export const createPage = async (
         ...page,
         updatedAt: new Date(),
         savedAt: new Date(),
-        wordsCount: wordsCounter(page.content, { isHtml: true }).wordsCount,
+        wordsCount: wordsCount(page.content),
       },
       refresh: ctx.refresh,
     })
diff --git a/packages/api/src/resolvers/article/index.ts b/packages/api/src/resolvers/article/index.ts
index 82fae81e8..e3ab899b0 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/resolvers/article/index.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/resolvers/article/index.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ import {
   titleForFilePath,
   userDataToUser,
   validatedDate,
+  wordsCount,
 } from '../../utils/helpers'
 import {
   ParsedContentPuppeteer,
@@ -94,7 +95,6 @@ import {
   updatePage,
 } from '../../elastic/pages'
 import { searchHighlights } from '../../elastic/highlights'
-import wordsCounter from 'word-counting'
 
 export type PartialArticle = Omit<
   Article,
@@ -258,9 +258,6 @@ export const createArticleResolver = authorized<
 
       const saveTime = new Date()
       const slug = generateSlug(parsedContent?.title || croppedPathname)
-      const wordsCount = wordsCounter(parsedContent?.content || '', {
-        isHtml: true,
-      }).wordsCount
       const articleToSave: Page = {
         id: pageId || '',
         userId: uid,
@@ -293,7 +290,7 @@ export const createArticleResolver = authorized<
         readingProgressAnchorIndex: 0,
         state: ArticleSavingRequestStatus.Succeeded,
         language: parsedContent?.language,
-        wordsCount,
+        wordsCount: wordsCount(parsedContent?.textContent || ''),
       }
 
       let archive = false
diff --git a/packages/api/src/utils/helpers.ts b/packages/api/src/utils/helpers.ts
index 98a9de742..c85903660 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/utils/helpers.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/utils/helpers.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { ArticleSavingRequestStatus, Page } from '../elastic/types'
 import { updatePage } from '../elastic/pages'
 import path from 'path'
 import normalizeUrl from 'normalize-url'
+import wordsCounter from 'word-counting'
 
 interface InputObject {
   // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
@@ -260,3 +261,11 @@ export const wait = (ms: number): Promise<void> => {
     setTimeout(resolve, ms)
   })
 }
+
+export const wordsCount = (text: string, isHtml = true): number => {
+  try {
+    return wordsCounter(text, { isHtml }).wordsCount
+  } catch {
+    return 0
+  }
+}