Character Counter
Count characters with and without spaces, plus bytes and lines, and see how your text compares with common limits such as X (280), SMS (160), meta descriptions and YouTube titles. Updates live as you type.
Show steps
How to use the Character Counter
- Type or paste your text.
- Read the character count with and without spaces. It updates as you type.
- Compare against the common limits table to see how many characters are left or over.
Formula and method
The counter measures every character in the box, including spaces, punctuation and line breaks (each line break counts as one character). The no-space count removes all whitespace. UTF-8 size counts 1 byte for basic English letters and 2 to 4 bytes for accented, non-Latin and emoji characters.
Common character limits
| Where | Limit |
|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post, standard account | 280 characters |
| SMS segment (GSM-7 alphabet) | 160 characters; messages with emoji or non-Latin text use 70 |
| Title tag shown in Google | about 50 to 60 characters before truncation |
| Meta description shown in Google | about 150 to 160 characters before truncation |
| YouTube video title | 100 characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters |
Characters vs words vs bytes
Characters measure length, words measure content and bytes measure storage. A 160-character English sentence is about 25 to 30 words. Accented letters and emoji use more bytes than plain letters, which matters for database field sizes and SMS length. To count words and reading time, use the word counter.
Tips for tight limits
Cut filler words, use contractions, replace long phrases with short ones, and put the key point first. For search snippets, front-load the main keyword and the benefit, and leave a few characters of margin because Google truncates by pixel width, not character count.
Frequently asked questions
Does a space count as a character?
Yes. Spaces, punctuation and line breaks each count as one character. The no-spaces figure excludes whitespace.
How many characters is a tweet?
Standard accounts allow 280 characters per post. Links are shortened and count as a fixed length on the platform.
How long should a meta description be?
About 150 to 160 characters. Google may show more or less depending on the query.
Does an emoji count as one character?
Here yes. Some platforms count emoji as two characters, so leave a small margin.
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