diff --git a/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss b/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss
index 9d23e59..b519c5e 100644
--- a/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss
+++ b/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss
@@ -49,6 +49,12 @@
   text-overflow: ellipsis;
 }
 
+.comment-branch-counter {
+  display: none;
+
+  margin-right: 0.4rem;
+}
+
 .comment-nav-link {
   font-size: 0.6rem;
   margin-left: 0.4rem;
@@ -137,6 +143,10 @@
     display: none;
   }
 
+  .comment-branch-counter {
+    display: inline-block;
+  }
+
   .comment-excerpt {
     display: inline-block;
   }
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
index cdf77e8..7d95a3c 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ class CommentTree:
         - `has_visible_descendant`: whether the comment has any visible descendants (if
           not, it can be pruned from the tree)
         - `collapsed_state`: whether to display this comment in a collapsed state
+        - `num_children`: how many (visible) children the comment has
     """
 
     def __init__(self, comments: Sequence[Comment], sort: CommentSortOption) -> None:
@@ -34,10 +35,6 @@ class CommentTree:
 
         self.comments_by_id = {comment.comment_id: comment for comment in comments}
 
-        # if there aren't any comments, we can just bail out here
-        if not self.comments:
-            return
-
         self._build_tree()
 
         # The method of building the tree already sorts it by posting time, so there's
@@ -50,6 +47,20 @@ class CommentTree:
 
         self.tree = self._prune_empty_branches(self.tree)
 
+        self._count_children()
+
+    def _count_children(self) -> None:
+        """Set the num_children attr for all comments."""
+        # work backwards through comments so that all children will have their count
+        # done first, and we can just sum all the counts from the replies
+        for comment in reversed(self.comments):
+            comment.num_children = 0
+            for reply in comment.replies:
+                comment.num_children += reply.num_children
+
+                if not (reply.is_deleted or reply.is_removed):
+                    comment.num_children += 1
+
     def _build_tree(self) -> None:
         """Build the initial tree from the flat list of Comments."""
         for comment in self.comments:
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/comment_contents.jinja2 b/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/comment_contents.jinja2
index 65eb1ee..ee7cbad 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/comment_contents.jinja2
+++ b/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/comment_contents.jinja2
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {% from 'macros/comments.jinja2' import render_comment_contents with context %}
 
-{{ render_comment_contents(comment) }}
+{{ render_comment_contents(comment, is_individual_comment=True) }}
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2 b/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2
index ae58a80..8913aea 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2
+++ b/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2
@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@
         {{ "+" if comment.collapsed_state in ("full", "individual") else "−" }}
       </button>
 
+      {% if not is_individual_comment and comment.num_children > 0 %}
+        <div class="comment-branch-counter">[{{ comment.num_children + 1 }}]</div>
+      {% endif %}
+
       {% if request.has_permission('view', comment) %}
         {{ username_linked(comment.user.username) }}