The character counter shows how many characters are in your text, with and without spaces, as you type. It also counts words, lines and bytes, works out how many SMS messages the text would take, and compares it against the limits of popular platforms so you can see at a glance whether your post, caption or title will fit.
How characters are counted
- Characters includes letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces and line breaks. Each emoji counts as one character here, though some platforms count certain emoji as two.
- Without spaces leaves out spaces, tabs and line breaks, a figure some assignments and forms ask for.
- Bytes is the size in UTF-8, useful for database fields and technical limits. Accented letters take two bytes and most emoji four.
Character limits to know
| Where | Limit |
|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters (longer for paid accounts) |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters |
| YouTube title / description | 100 / 5,000 characters |
| Pinterest pin description | 500 characters |
| Text message (SMS) | 160 characters, or 70 with emoji or special characters |
| Google title / meta description | About 60 / 160 characters before they’re cut |
See every limit in one place in our social media character limits guide. For reading time and keyword counts, use the word counter; for search snippets, the SERP preview tool measures in pixels.
Frequently asked questions
Do spaces count as characters?
Yes, on almost every platform and form. That’s why the main total includes spaces; the “without spaces” figure is shown separately.
Why does my text message split into several messages?
A standard SMS holds 160 characters. Longer texts are split into parts of 153 characters each. Any emoji or special character switches the whole message to a different encoding with only 70 characters per message (67 per part).
Is my text saved?
No. Counting happens in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.