Count posts returned by get_posts in external PHP script

The WordPress function get_posts() is making it’s own instance of WP_Query that is not globally accessible:

function get_posts($args = null) {
    // ... cut ...
    $get_posts = new WP_Query;
    return $get_posts->query($r);
}

so you could instead try

 $results = get_posts($args);
 echo count($results);

to give you the array count of post objects returned by get_posts().

WP_Query() class usage example:

You could consider using the WP_Query() class directly.

Here is an example how you can use it:

<?php
// your input parameters:   
$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => 10,
);

$my_query = new WP_Query( $args );?>

Found posts: <?php echo $my_query->found_posts;?>

<?php if ( $my_query->have_posts() ):?>
    <ul>
        <?php while ( $my_query->have_posts() ) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
            <li> <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/99089/<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
        <?php endwhile; ?>
    </ul>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php wp_reset_postdata();?>

We use wp_reset_postdata() in the end, to restore the global $post object, since we change it via the_post() method.

Reference:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_reset_postdata

http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query

WP_Query() class usage example:

Reference:

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