What might seem as a simple question at first, is actually quite difficult to answer.
You might get different answers, depending on who you ask, or on what parameters you choose to define a country.
A quick answer would be 193 (United nations council members) as of 2022.
But another answer could be 195 (UN + Vatican + Palestine).
Both Vatican and Palestine are not members of the UN but are considered to be observant states.
The Vatican chose that status intentionally to remain away from political disputes, but for Palestine it’s a bit different. It has applied for full United Nations membership multiple times and a majority of United Nations members have recognized Palestine as a sovereign state, but some big members still refuse to allow it in before the conflict with Israel is resolved.
The most prominent country being the USA.
But there will be others disagreeing with the 195 number, like Taiwan or Kosovo.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia and has been recognized by around 100 countries.
Taiwan is considered by around 13 countries to be an independent country, but China considers Taiwan as part of it and this led to a lot of tensions.
So if we add Kosovo and Taiwan the numbers become 197
But it gets more and more complicated if you start considering other states like Western Sahara, Abkhazia and Northern Cyprus. Each having its own story which we won’t discuss here.
The lines are so blurred and the number of countries can quickly go up and reach 237 countries as mentioned in this CIA Factbook.
So to sum up, there is no right answer. But a safe answer would be 193+ countries.