About the Character Counter
Count characters as you type, with and without spaces, and check your text against common limits such as X (Twitter) posts, Google title tags, meta descriptions and SMS segments.
Key features
- Characters with and without spaces, updated as you type
- Words, lines and UTF-8 byte size
- Limit bars for X (Twitter), title tags, meta descriptions and more
- SMS segment count (GSM-7 and Unicode)
- Emoji counted as one character
- Private: text never leaves your browser
Count characters for any platform
Writing a tweet, a meta description, an SMS campaign or a form field with a maximum length? This counter shows the exact number of characters as you type, plus how close you are to the most common limits.
Common character limits
| Where | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 | Links count as 23 |
| Google title tag | ~60 | Truncated at ~600 px width |
| Meta description | ~155–160 | Google may rewrite it |
| SMS (GSM-7) | 160 | 153 per part when split |
| SMS (Unicode) | 70 | 67 per part when split |
| YouTube title | 100 | ~70 visible in search |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | First ~125 shown |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | ~210 before "see more" |
Characters, bytes and code units
The same text can have different "lengths":
| Text | Characters | UTF-16 units | UTF-8 bytes |
|---|---|---|---|
hello | 5 | 5 | 5 |
café | 4 | 4 | 5 |
👋 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
👋🏽 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
Databases and APIs often limit bytes, while social platforms limit characters. Check which one applies.
Writing within a limit
- Front-load key words: titles and previews are cut off at the end.
- Replace phrases with shorter words: "in order to" → "to".
- Watch for hidden Unicode: curly quotes and emoji can turn an SMS into a Unicode message.
Related tools
Need word counts and reading time? Use the Word Counter. To cut text into fixed-size pieces, try the Text Splitter.
How to use the Character Counter
- Type or paste your text into the input box.
- Choose the options you want.
- The result updates instantly as you type.
- Copy the output or download it as a .txt file.