How to use the Character Counter
Type or paste your text. The counts for characters with spaces, characters without spaces, words and lines update as you go.
Common character limits
A single SMS holds 160 plain characters, but only 70 if it contains emoji or other special characters. Posts on X allow 280 characters. Search results usually show around 50 to 60 characters of a page title and roughly 150 to 160 characters of a meta description before cutting them off.
With or without spaces
Most forms, social networks and SMS limits count spaces as characters. Some academic and translation work is priced by characters without spaces, so both numbers are shown. If you are close to a limit, trimming double spaces and extra line breaks is often an easy win.
Character limits by platform
Titles on Reddit can be up to 300 characters, and a bio on many social media profiles is limited to around 150. Text messages split into several parts once they pass 160 plain characters. Check the character count here before you paste into a form that cuts text off without warning, so the end of your message is not lost.
Characters versus words
Some limits are set in words and others in characters. Essays and applications often have word limits, while ads, meta descriptions and text messages count the number of characters. This tool shows both, so you can check against either kind of limit without switching to a separate word counter.
Examples
- A sample sentence
Characters: 39 Characters without whitespace: 34 Words: 6 Lines: 1
- Two short lines
Characters: 25 Characters without whitespace: 22 Words: 4 Lines: 2
Limitations and assumptions
Counts are based on the text you paste. Some platforms count emoji and certain symbols as two characters, so leave a little room under a strict limit.
Frequently asked questions
Do spaces count as characters?
Yes in the total count; the tool also shows the count without spaces.
How long should an SEO title be?
Aim for around 50 to 60 characters so it is not truncated in search results.
Are emoji counted correctly?
Some emoji are made of several code points, so counts can differ between platforms.
Is my text stored?
No. Counting is done in your browser.