How to count characters
- Type in the box, or paste text from a document, email or web page.
- Read the live counts: characters with and without spaces, words, sentences, paragraphs and lines.
- Check the limits table to see whether the text fits a post, SMS, title tag or meta description.
Common character limits
| Platform or field | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 | Links count as 23; most emoji count as 2. Paid accounts can post longer. |
| SMS text message | 160 | 70 if the message contains emoji or other non-GSM characters. Longer messages are split into parts of 153 (or 67). |
| Google title tag | about 60 | Google truncates by pixel width (about 600 px), so 50–60 characters is a safe target. |
| Meta description | about 155–160 | Longer descriptions are cut off in search results, usually around 920 px on desktop. |
| YouTube title | 100 | About 70 characters show in most layouts. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Only the first 125 or so show before “more”. |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | About 210 characters show before “see more”. |
Characters vs. words vs. bytes
Characters are what you see: letters, digits, spaces, punctuation and emoji. Words are runs of letters or numbers, which is what essay and article limits usually mean. Bytes measure storage: plain English letters take one byte each in UTF-8, accented letters two, and most emoji four. Database fields and some APIs limit bytes, not characters, so a 255-character field may hold fewer emoji than you expect.
Need placeholder text of a certain length? Make it with the lorem ipsum generator. Cleaning up pasted text first? Use Remove Line Breaks, or compare two drafts with Text Compare.
Frequently asked questions
Does the character counter count spaces?
Yes. The main count includes spaces, line breaks and punctuation, which is how most limits (X, SMS, meta descriptions) are measured. The “without spaces” figure removes every space, tab and line break, which some school and translation word limits use.
How are emoji counted?
Each emoji or accented letter you see counts as one character, even when it is built from several Unicode code points. Some platforms count differently: X counts most emoji as two characters, and SMS switches to Unicode, which fits 70 characters per message instead of 160.
How are words counted?
A word is a run of letters or numbers. Contractions such as it’s, hyphenated words such as well-known, and numbers such as 3.5 count as one word each. Punctuation and symbols on their own are not words.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time assumes 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for English non-fiction found in a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies. Speaking time assumes 150 words per minute, a typical pace for presentations.
Is my text saved or uploaded?
No. Counting happens in this browser tab as you type. Your text is not sent to SuperUtils or stored in your browser.