Character Counter
A character counter tells you how many characters a text contains, with and without spaces. It’s useful for social posts, SMS, meta descriptions and form fields that have a character limit.
Count characters
Character Counter
Count characters, characters with and without spaces, words and lines
How to use it
- Type or paste your text.
- Select Count Characters.
- See characters, characters without spaces, words, spaces, lines and paragraphs.
What counts as a character
Letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces and line breaks all count. This tool counts what you see: an emoji such as 👍🏽 or an accented letter like é is one character, even though computers may store it as several code units. Some platforms count emoji differently (X, for example, counts most emoji as two), so treat platform limits as the final word.
Character limits worth knowing
| Where | Limit |
|---|---|
| Standard SMS (GSM-7) | 160 characters per message |
| SMS with emoji or non-Latin text (UCS-2) | 70 characters per message |
| X (Twitter) standard post | 280 |
| SEO title | ~50–60 visible |
Why limits count differently
Platforms don’t all count the same way. SMS splits messages at 160 characters (or 70 when the text contains emoji or non-Latin characters), and longer messages are sent as several parts with slightly lower limits per part. X counts most emoji and some CJK characters as two. Meta descriptions aren’t limited by characters at all; Google truncates by display width. When a limit is strict, check the platform’s own counter before publishing.
Quick ways to cut characters
- Replace phrases with single words: “in order to” → “to”, “at this point in time” → “now”.
- Use numerals: “three” → “3”.
- Remove filler such as “really”, “very” and “just”.
- Use the word counter if your limit is in words rather than characters.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, in the main total. Characters without spaces are shown separately.
Many counters count storage units, so one emoji can show as 2–4 characters. This tool counts each visible character once.
Related tools
More in Writing Tools · All tools