Home › Text Tools › Character Counter
Character Counter
Type or paste text to count characters with and without spaces, words, sentences, lines and UTF-8 bytes instantly. Live progress bars show how close you are to the limits for X posts, SEO titles, meta descriptions, SMS and more.
0Characters
0Without spaces
0Words
0Sentences
0Paragraphs
0Lines
0Bytes (UTF-8)
0SMS parts
Letters 0
Digits 0
Spaces 0
Punctuation & symbols 0
Emoji 0
UTF-16 units 0
Reading time 0 sec
Speaking time 0 sec
Character limit
0 / 280280 characters left
All common limits
Platform limits change from time to time, and some sites count emoji or links differently (X counts each link as 23 characters). Treat SEO lengths as guidelines: search engines cut titles and descriptions by pixel width.
Advertisement
Advertisement
How to use the Character Counter
- Type or paste your text into the box. All counts update instantly.
- Read the counters: characters, characters without spaces, words, sentences, paragraphs, lines, bytes and SMS parts.
- Pick a limit such as X post (280) or Meta description (160), or enter a custom limit, and watch the progress bar.
- Select part of the text to see the character and word count of just that selection.
- Trim, copy or clear: cut the text to the limit in one click, copy the text or copy all the stats.
How characters, words and bytes are counted
Characters are counted as user-perceived characters (grapheme clusters), so é, 👍🏽 or a flag emoji each count as 1. Untick the emoji option to count raw UTF-16 code units instead, which is what JavaScript's length and many databases report. Words are runs of letters or digits; words joined by an apostrophe or hyphen (don't, well-known) count as one. Sentences end with . ! ? or …, paragraphs are separated by a blank line, and bytes are the size of the text encoded as UTF-8.
Reading time uses an average silent reading speed of 238 words per minute, and speaking time uses about 130 words per minute, a typical pace for presentations. Real speeds vary from person to person.
Common character limits
| Where | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 | Links count as 23; most emoji and CJK characters count as 2 |
| SEO title tag | ~60 | Guideline; Google truncates by pixel width (about 600 px) |
| Meta description | ~155–160 | Guideline; longer text may be cut with “…” |
| SMS (GSM-7) | 160 per message | 153 per part when split |
| SMS (Unicode) | 70 per message | 67 per part when split |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Only the first ~125 show before “more” |
| Instagram bio | 150 | |
| YouTube title / description | 100 / 5,000 | |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | |
| Threads post | 500 | |
| Bluesky post | 300 | |
| Facebook post | 63,206 |
UTF-8 bytes per character
| Character type | Example | UTF-8 bytes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Latin (ASCII) | A, z, 7, ? | 1 |
| Accented Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic | é, ß, Ж, ש | 2 |
| Most Chinese, Japanese, Korean, symbols like € | 中, あ, 한, € | 3 |
| Emoji and rare characters | 😀, 𝄞 | 4 (combined emoji use more) |
Frequently asked questions
Does the character count include spaces?
The main Characters number includes spaces, punctuation and (by default) line breaks, which is how most websites and forms count. The Without spaces number removes every space, tab and line break.
How are emoji counted?
With the default setting an emoji such as a family or a flag counts as one character, because that is what you see. Some systems store an emoji as 2 or more UTF-16 units; the UTF-16 units number shows that raw count, and X counts most emoji as 2.
What is the difference between characters and bytes?
A character is one visible symbol. Bytes measure storage size in UTF-8: English letters and digits take 1 byte, accented letters such as é usually take 2, most Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters take 3, and emoji take 4 or more.
How many characters fit in one SMS?
A standard SMS holds 160 characters using the GSM-7 alphabet. If the message contains a character outside that alphabet, such as an emoji or many accented letters, it switches to Unicode and holds 70. Longer messages are split into parts of 153 (GSM-7) or 67 (Unicode) characters.
How long should a meta description and title tag be?
A common guideline is up to about 60 characters for a title tag and about 150 to 160 characters for a meta description. Google actually cuts snippets by pixel width, so treat these numbers as targets rather than hard limits.
Is there a limit to how much text I can paste?
No fixed limit. The counter runs in your browser and handles long documents of hundreds of thousands of characters. Your text is not uploaded or stored on a server.
Related tools
Word CounterCount words and characters and clean up text.X Post Character CounterCount X (Twitter) post characters and split long text into a thread.YouTube Title Length CheckerCheck YouTube title length, preview truncation and score it for clicks.Case ConverterConvert text to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case, camelCase and more.Word Count to PagesHow many pages is 1,000 words? Estimate pages by font, size, spacing and margins.Remove Line BreaksStrip line breaks and extra spaces, keep paragraphs if you want.Sort Lines AlphabeticallySort a list A-Z, Z-A, numerically, naturally or by length, or shuffle it.Citation GeneratorCreate APA, MLA and Chicago citations for books, websites and articles.MLA Format GeneratorBuild an MLA 9 heading, title page layout and Works Cited entries.Bibliography GeneratorBuild an alphabetized bibliography in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago or Harvard style.Essay Length & Reading TimeWords to reading time, speaking time and handwritten or typed pages.Lorem Ipsum GeneratorGenerate placeholder text as paragraphs, words or lists, with HTML.Instagram Caption FormatterKeep line breaks and spacing in Instagram captions and bios.Instagram Bio GeneratorCreate Instagram bios with templates, fancy fonts and emojis.TikTok Caption CounterCount TikTok caption characters and hashtags against the 2,200 limit.Speech Length CalculatorPaste a speech to see how long it takes to say at any speaking speed.Text to SpeechTurn text into natural-sounding speech.Fancy Text GeneratorTurn text into cool Unicode fonts for bios.Reverse Text GeneratorWrite text backwards, reverse words or lines, mirror or flip it upside down.Upside Down Text GeneratorFlip text upside down with Unicode characters, or turn it back to normal.Text RepeaterRepeat any text or emoji up to 100,000 times with custom separators.YouTube Description & Chapters GeneratorBuild a YouTube description with chapters, links and hashtags from templates.Text CompareFind the differences between two texts.AI Prompt GeneratorBuild better prompts for ChatGPT, Midjourney and more.Email Signature GeneratorBuild HTML email signatures for Gmail and Outlook.Flashcard MakerMake flashcard decks and study them with flip cards and spaced repetition, saved in your browser.Find and Replace TextFind and replace words or regex patterns in any text, with match highlighting and undo.YouTube Tag GeneratorGenerate YouTube tag ideas from your title and keywords and fit them in the 500-character limit.Quiz MakerMake a multiple-choice quiz, take it with instant scoring and share it with a link.Add Line NumbersNumber every line of your text with custom start, step, padding and separator, or remove numbers.Add Prefix and Suffix to LinesAdd text to the start and end of every line: quotes, commas, bullets or SQL lists.Comma SeparatorTurn a column of lines into a comma separated list and back, with any delimiter.LinkedIn Post FormatterAdd bold, italic and other Unicode styles to LinkedIn posts and preview the fold.Word Frequency CounterFind the most used words and phrases in any text and turn them into a word cloud.Social Media Post PreviewMock up a post for X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Threads and save it as a PNG.Sentence CounterCount sentences and paragraphs, see average sentence length and spot long sentences.Emoji CounterCount every emoji in your text, including flags, skin tones and ZWJ sequences.Readability CheckerScore your text with Flesch, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG and more readability tests.Text to Handwriting ConverterTurn typed text into realistic handwriting on notebook paper and save it as PNG or PDF.Keyword Density CheckerFind the most used 1, 2 and 3-word phrases in your text and their keyword density %.Title Capitalization ToolCapitalize titles and headlines in AP, APA, Chicago and MLA style side by side, with one-click copy.Accent KeyboardClick to insert é, ñ, ü, ç, ß and other accented letters for 11 languages, then copy.Small Text GeneratorTurn text into tiny superscript, subscript and small caps letters you can copy and paste.Headline AnalyzerScore your headline 0–100 on length, word balance, power words, sentiment and type, with tips.Cyrillic TransliterationConvert Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian Cyrillic to Latin and back using official rules.Zalgo Text GeneratorMake creepy glitch text with separate up, middle and down sliders, or clean zalgo back to normal.Arabic KeyboardType Arabic online with a full on-screen keyboard, harakat and Arabic-Indic digits, then copy.Invisible CharacterCopy blank and invisible characters (ㅤ U+3164, U+2800, zero width space) for names and messages.Reading Time CalculatorEstimate how long a text takes to read or speak at any speed, and copy a “5 min read” badge.Russian KeyboardType Russian online with a ЙЦУКЕН or phonetic on-screen keyboard, then copy your Cyrillic text.Emoji PickerSearch 1,900+ emoji by name, pick skin tones and copy and paste them with one click.Japanese Kana ConverterConvert romaji to hiragana or katakana, kana to romaji, and hiragana to katakana instantly.Special CharactersCopy and paste 1,500+ symbols: arrows, math, currency, stars, checkmarks, © ® ™ and more.Pinyin Tone ConverterTurn pinyin tone numbers (ni3 hao3) into tone marks (nǐ hǎo), or tone marks back into numbers.Word UnscramblerUnscramble letters into every possible word, with blank tiles, length filters and Scrabble scores.Remove Duplicate LinesDelete duplicate lines from any list, ignoring case or spaces, keep first or last, and sort.Remove Extra SpacesClean up double spaces, tabs, blank lines, non-breaking and invisible spaces in one click.ROT13 Encoder / DecoderEncode and decode ROT13, ROT47, ROT5, ROT18 and any Caesar shift live as you type.Random Word GeneratorGenerate random English words by type, length, first letter and syllables, then copy them.Palindrome CheckerCheck if a word, sentence or number is a palindrome and find the longest palindrome in text.Syllable CounterCount syllables per word, line and total, and check haiku 5-7-5 instantly.List RandomizerShuffle a list into random order, pick random items or split it into fair teams.Email ExtractorPull every unique email address out of text or files, sort, filter by domain and export CSV.URL ExtractorExtract every link from text or HTML, remove duplicates, filter by domain or protocol.NATO Phonetic Alphabet TranslatorSpell any text as Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, hear it spoken, or decode code words back to text.Braille TranslatorTranslate English text to Grade 1 Unicode braille and back, with dot numbers and printing.Text SummarizerSummarize long text into its key sentences and keywords, privately in your browser.Strip HTML TagsRemove HTML tags and get clean plain text with line breaks and decoded entities.Speech to TextDictate with your voice and get editable text in 50+ languages, with voice punctuation.ASCII Art GeneratorTurn text into big ASCII banners or convert any image into ASCII art you can copy.Online NotepadPrivate notepad that autosaves notes in your browser, with find, word count and .txt download.Bold Text GeneratorConvert text to bold Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Italic Text GeneratorConvert text to italic Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Cursive Text GeneratorConvert text to cursive Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Strikethrough Text GeneratorConvert text to strikethrough Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Underline Text GeneratorConvert text to underlined Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Bubble Text GeneratorConvert text to bubble Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Wide Text GeneratorConvert text to wide Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Old English Text GeneratorConvert text to Old English Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Superscript GeneratorConvert text to superscript Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.Subscript GeneratorConvert text to subscript Unicode letters you can copy and paste anywhere.