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Character Counter

Paste your text to count characters with and without spaces, plus bytes, and see whether it fits limits such as SMS, Twitter and meta descriptions. Emoji can count as several characters, so a grapheme count shows what a reader actually sees. One emoji or curly quote drops an SMS limit from 160 to 70. Nothing is uploaded.

Runs entirely in your browser

Updated

How to use the Character Counter

  1. 1Paste or type your text.
  2. 2Read the counts — with spaces, without spaces, and bytes.
  3. 3Check the limit indicators for the platforms you care about.
  4. 4Trim until the bars turn green.

How it works

Two different counts appear because platforms disagree about what a character is. JavaScript counts UTF-16 code units, which means most emoji count as two and some — flags, family groupings, skin-tone variants — count as more. The grapheme count instead counts what a reader sees as one character. A single 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 is 11 code units but one grapheme.

The byte count is different again, and it is the one that matters for SMS and for database columns. UTF-8 uses one byte for ASCII, two or three for accented and non-Latin scripts, and four for most emoji.

SMS has its own rule worth knowing: a message using only the GSM 7-bit alphabet fits 160 characters, but a single character outside it — a curly quote, an em dash, an emoji — switches the whole message to UCS-2 and drops the limit to 70. The tool flags this, because it is a common and expensive surprise.

Your text is processed by JavaScript running in this page and is never sent over the network. That matters when you are pasting a draft, a client brief, meeting notes or anything else you would rather not hand to a server.

Tips and common mistakes

  • Check which count a platform uses; emoji and accented letters can count differently.
  • Keep search result descriptions to around 150–160 characters.
  • For text messages, watch the SMS line: one curly quote or emoji can cut the limit from 160 to 70.
  • Remember spaces and line breaks count as characters on most platforms.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my emoji count as two characters?
Most platforms count UTF-16 code units, and emoji outside the basic range take two. Composite emoji like family groupings take many more. The grapheme count shows what a reader actually sees.
How many characters are in a text message (SMS)?
160 if every character is in the GSM 7-bit alphabet. One character outside it — an emoji or a curly quote — drops the limit to 70 for the whole message. Longer texts are split into parts of 153 characters (or 67), because each part spends a few characters on joining information.
What is the ideal meta description length?
Around 150–160 characters. Google truncates by pixel width rather than character count, so shorter is safer for descriptions with wide characters.
Do spaces count as characters?
On most platforms, yes. The counter shows the total with and without spaces so you can match whichever rule applies.
How many characters fit in a post on X?
280 for a standard account.
What is a grapheme?
What a reader sees as a single character. A family emoji is built from several code points but displays as one grapheme.
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