Character Counter

What is character counter?

Many places limit text by characters: a post on X, a text message, a Google title tag or a meta description. A character counter tells you at once if you are inside the limit.

The table of platforms shows how many characters you have left or how many you are over.

How to use the character counter

1. Paste or type your text.
2. Read the character counts.
3. Check the platform table and trim your text if you are over.

How the character counter works

Characters are counted as the length of the text including spaces and line breaks. The without spaces count removes all whitespace. Bytes use UTF 8, where emoji and some letters take more than one byte.

Worked example

Common uses of the character counter

• Fitting a post inside the limit for X.
• Writing a title tag and meta description for search results.
• Keeping an SMS in one segment to save cost.
• Preparing ad copy with strict character limits.
• Checking form fields and database column sizes.

Tips and common mistakes

Emoji count as more than one character on some platforms, so keep a safety margin.

Search engines measure width in pixels, so a title with many wide letters may cut off earlier than 60 characters.

Background: what to know before you rely on it

Character limits come from technology and design. The classic 160 character SMS limit came from the way messages were packed into signaling data in the 1980s. Early X posts were capped at 140 characters to fit an SMS with a username. Search engines limit snippets by pixel width, so a title full of wide letters like W is cut earlier than one with narrow letters like i. Emoji and some scripts use more than one byte or even more than one code unit, so the visible count and the count on a platform may differ. Leave a small safety margin when you are close to a limit.

Private, free and fast

This tool runs entirely in your browser. What you type or choose is not uploaded to a server and is not saved after you close the page, which keeps it fast and private. It is free to use as often as you like. See more in all text tools, or browse the full list of tools.

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Results are for information and education. For legal, financial, medical or security decisions, check with a qualified professional. Always proofread output before you publish.