Character Counter
Real-time character, word, sentence and paragraph count for your text.
How to use the character counter
Type or paste your text into the box above. The character counter updates as you type and shows two figures: characters with spaces (the total length) and characters without spaces (the printed-letter count). Counts run entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Characters with vs without spaces
Almost every platform that imposes a character limit counts spaces. Twitter / X, SMS, Google Ads, meta descriptions, and Instagram captions all include whitespace toward the limit. The "without spaces" figure is mainly used for:
- Translation pricing — most agencies quote per 1,000 characters without spaces.
- Transcription pricing — usually charged per audio minute, occasionally per character.
- Typesetting — spaces compress in justified text, so non-space characters give a better space estimate.
- Cryptography — entropy estimates ignore separators.
If you're in doubt, use "characters with spaces" — that's what every social platform and ad network counts.
Character limits by platform
Hit a hard limit and your post truncates, your ad disappears, or your SMS splits into two billable messages. The table below covers the platforms writers and marketers ask about most:
| Platform | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X — free | 280 | URLs always count as 23 characters |
| Twitter / X — Premium | 25,000 | Long-form posts |
| SMS (single) | 160 | Above 160 splits into multipart messages |
| SMS (Unicode) | 70 | Triggered by emoji or non-Latin chars |
| Meta description | ~155 | Google truncates with "…" |
| Title tag | ~60 | Pixel-based, not strictly character |
| Google Ads — headline | 30 each (15 fields) | Up to 15 headlines per responsive ad |
| Google Ads — description | 90 each (4 fields) | |
| Facebook ad — primary text | 125 (recommended) | Truncates with "See More" |
| Facebook post | 63,206 | Practical limit; visible truncation at 477 |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Hashtags + @mentions count |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | "See more" appears at 210 |
| YouTube title | 100 | |
| YouTube description | 5,000 | First 157 visible without expand |
| TikTok caption | 2,200 | Recently raised from 300 |
| Reddit post title | 300 | |
| Pinterest description | 500 | |
| Email subject line | ~50 | Truncation depends on inbox |
| Apple App Store title | 30 | |
| Google Play title | 50 |
How we count characters
The character counter uses Unicode code-point counting, the same convention browsers and modern programming languages use. That means:
- Letters, digits, and punctuation count as one character each.
- Spaces, tabs, and line breaks count as one character each (in the "with spaces" total).
- Emoji count as one character per visible glyph in the "with spaces" total — but be aware that some platforms (notably SMS) count them as 2–4 because they're encoded with multiple bytes.
- Accented letters (é, ñ, ü) count as one character.
- Diacritics combined separately (é written as "e" + combining accent) count as two; pre-composed forms count as one. Browsers normalise the visible character either way.
If your platform counts characters differently — for example, Twitter / X reduces every URL to 23 characters regardless of length — the difference is in their counting policy, not in the underlying text.
Character counter vs word counter
Reach for the character counter when the platform enforces a character limit (Twitter / X, SMS, meta tags, ad copy). Reach for the word counter when you have a target word count (essay, blog post, novel chapter) or care about reading time and readability.
Practical tips for character-bounded writing
- Cut filler first. "In order to" → "to". "At this point in time" → "now". "Despite the fact that" → "Although".
- Use shorter synonyms: utilize → use, demonstrate → show, purchase → buy.
- Drop optional articles only when it doesn't read clipped — "The cat is on the mat" → "Cat on mat" works in headlines, not body copy.
- Numerals beat words: "ten" → "10" saves two characters every time.
- Trim hashtag bloat — three relevant hashtags outperform ten generic ones.
- Front-load the keyword — what survives truncation is the first 50–60 characters.
More tools for writers
- Word Counter — for word-bounded writing and readability.
- Scrabble Word Finder — anagram solver with letter values.
- Pomodoro Timer — 25-minute focus sprints.
Frequently asked questions
How does the character counter handle emoji?
Each visible emoji counts as one character in our display. SMS gateways and some other systems treat emoji as 2–4 bytes, so always check the platform's own counter for the final cut.
Why does Twitter say my post is shorter than the character counter?
Twitter / X compresses URLs to 23 characters and treats t.co-shortened links uniformly. Our counter shows the literal character count of what you typed. For a Twitter-accurate count, mentally subtract URL length and add 23 per link.
Are spaces really characters?
Yes — space is a Unicode code point (U+0020) just like any letter. Every platform that counts "characters" includes spaces unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Does the character counter work for non-English languages?
Yes. We count Unicode code points, so Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, CJK, and emoji all count consistently. CJK characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) count as one character each, even though they take more bytes to encode.
Is there a maximum text length?
The browser version handles documents up to several megabytes without lag. Our API caps text length at 1 MB per request.
Does it count line breaks?
Yes — every newline counts as one character in the "with spaces" total. Most platforms count newlines as one character; SMS counts \r\n as two.
Can I count characters in a Word document or PDF?
Paste the text directly into the box. We don't extract from binary files yet; that's planned. For Microsoft Word, use Review → Word Count, which shows characters with and without spaces.