Free Character Counter

Count Characters With and Without Spaces

Type or paste text above and the character count appears straight away. Two numbers matter most:

• Characters counts everything you can see, including spaces, punctuation and line breaks.
• Characters (no spaces) leaves out spaces, tabs and line breaks.

Both count visible characters, not hidden code units. That means an emoji, a flag or an accented letter written with a combining mark counts as one character, which matches what you see on screen. Some programs count the underlying code units and report a higher number for emoji, so you may see a difference.

Check Your Text Against Common Limits

Under the text box you will see how your text fits a set of limits, with a bar for each one. The bar turns red when you go over.

Platforms change their limits from time to time, and some limits differ by account type or feature. If a limit really matters, check the platform's own help page. The sources are X's guide to counting characters, LinkedIn's help on posting updates, Instagram's help on bios, YouTube's help on video settings and Twilio's SMS length guide.

How X counts characters

An X post can hold 280 characters, but they are weighted. Most letters and punctuation count as 1. A link counts as 23 no matter how long it is. Emoji, Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters, and other non-Latin characters count as 2 each. This tool follows those published rules for the X bar. It treats text starting with http:// or https:// as a link, so a bare domain such as example.com is counted as ordinary text.

How SMS length works

A plain-text SMS fits 160 characters in one message. If your text is longer, it is split into several messages that hold 153 characters each. If your text contains an emoji or certain accented letters, the whole message switches to Unicode encoding, which fits only 70 characters in one message and 67 in each part of a longer one. The SMS line under the box tells you which encoding applies and how many messages your text would use.

SEO titles and meta descriptions

Google does not publish a fixed character limit for titles or meta descriptions. It shows what fits in the space available and may cut the rest, so the figures of about 60 and about 160 characters are rules of thumb that many SEO writers use. They are included so you can write with a target in mind, not because anyone enforces them.

Why Character Count Matters

• Social posts are cut off or rejected when they go over.
• Search snippets are trimmed when titles and descriptions run long.
• Text messages cost more, or arrive in parts, when they go over a segment.
• Forms and applications often set strict character limits on answers.
• Product listings and ads have field limits that vary by platform.

For counting words instead, use the word counter. For fitting a long text into a limit, the free AI summarizer can suggest a shorter version, and the meta description generator can draft one that fits.

Your Text Stays in Your Browser

The counting happens on your device. Nothing you type is uploaded, saved or sent to an AI. If you click one of the AI buttons below the text box, your text is carried over to that tool.

What This Counter Cannot Tell You

It counts what you give it, and it cannot know every rule on every platform. Some platforms count line breaks, links, hashtags or mentions in their own ways, and some limits are different for paying accounts or for different post types. Treat the bars as a close guide, and do a final check on the platform when a post must not fail.

Related Tools and Guides

• Word counter
• Sentence counter
• Meta description generator
• Tweet generator
• Social media writing with Writingful