Character Counter: Words, Characters, Social Limits

Character counter

Shows how far you are from 21 platform limits at once, counts links, emoji and non-Latin text the way X does, splits SMS into parts, and reports characters, UTF-16 units and bytes side by side.

In short

A character counter totals the characters in your text. This one gives characters with and without spaces, words, sentences, paragraphs and lines as you type, then checks the same text against the limits of X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, SMS and Google results. Emoji, accents and Arabic, Urdu, Hindi or Chinese text are counted correctly.

21 platform limits

Emoji and any script

SMS parts

Copy summary

Runs in your browser

Private by design. Nothing you type is uploaded or saved. Add this tool to your phone or computer for one-tap access.

Page last updated 20 Oct 2026

How to use it

Type or paste your text into the box. The counts update as you go.
Read the counts with and without spaces, the words, sentences, paragraphs and lines, and the reading and speaking time.
Open Limits to see each platform’s allowance, how many characters are left or over, and how many SMS parts the text makes.
Select part of the text to count only that part, or set a minimum or maximum goal.
Change the case, tidy spaces and line breaks, copy the text or download it as a file.

How it calculates

Characters are counted as a reader sees them (Unicode grapheme clusters), so an accented letter or an emoji with a skin tone is one character. Line breaks count as one. UTF-16 units and UTF-8 bytes are shown beside the count because some systems use those. Words are split on white space, as word processors do, and text in Chinese, Japanese and Thai is split with the browser’s word-break rules. A sentence ends at . ! ? or their full-width forms. X counts links as 23 and emoji and non-Latin letters as 2. An SMS holds 160 characters in the GSM-7 alphabet or 70 otherwise, and splits into 153 or 67 per part.

For example, “Hello, world! 👍🏽 It’s a test.” has 28 characters, 23 without spaces and 5 words in 2 sentences. The thumbs-up with a skin tone is one character, but 4 UTF-16 units and 8 bytes. On X, 250 letters, a long link and two emoji count as 250 + 1 + 23 + 1 + 4 = 279, which leaves 1 to spare. A text message of 100 letters and one emoji has to use the longer UCS-2 alphabet, so it is sent as 2 messages, not one. A 1,190-word article takes about 5 min to read at 238 words a minute. The text is made up; yours comes from what you type.

Who should use it

Anyone writing a post, caption, bio, headline or text message against a character limit
Students and writers with a word or character count to meet
Marketers checking titles, meta descriptions and ad text
People writing in Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese or with emoji, where simple counters give the wrong number

Who should not use this

Anyone who needs a count that matches one specific word processor, database or API to the digit; each counts a little differently, so check the final text in the place it will be used
Anyone who needs grammar, spelling or plagiarism checking; this tool only counts and tidies text

Limitations

Platform limits change. They were checked on 20 October 2026; confirm in the app before you rely on the last character.
The X count follows X’s published rules (280, links 23, emoji and non-Latin letters 2). X does not publish which characters count as 1 beyond the Latin range, so rare symbols may differ by a character.
Platforms that count emoji as two characters are flagged with a caution rather than counted both ways.
Sentence counting treats abbreviations such as “e.g.” as a sentence end.
Google cuts titles and descriptions by pixel width, so 60 and 160 characters are guides, not rules.
Text is limited only by your browser’s memory, and very long documents may make typing slower.
Nothing is uploaded or stored on a server. Clearing your browser data also removes the saved profile.

Sources and review

Reviewed on 20 Oct 2026 against the published sources below. Rules and prices change, so check the current position before you rely on a figure.

Common questions

How do I count characters with and without spaces?

Paste the text and read the two figures at the top: Characters counts everything including spaces and line breaks, and Characters without spaces leaves out every space, tab and line break. A third figure, Letters and digits, also drops punctuation and symbols.

Does an emoji or a line break count as a character?

A line break counts as one character, however it was typed. An emoji counts as one character here because that is how a reader sees it, but it is two UTF-16 units and four or more bytes. X counts every emoji as two, and some other platforms do too, so the tool warns you when emoji could push a post over.

What is the character limit on X (Twitter)?

Standard posts are limited to 280, with Premium accounts reported to allow up to 25,000. X weights the count: Latin letters and punctuation count 1, emoji and most non-Latin letters count 2, and every link counts 23 whatever its length. The X meter on this page applies those rules.

How many characters can I put in an Instagram caption or bio?

An Instagram caption can hold up to 2,200 characters and a bio up to 150. The limits tab shows both, with LinkedIn posts (3,000), LinkedIn headlines (220), YouTube titles (100) and descriptions (5,000), TikTok captions, Pinterest, Reddit, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon.

How many characters is one text message?

One SMS holds 160 characters if every character is in the basic GSM-7 alphabet, and 70 if any character is outside it, such as an emoji or a letter like ç. Longer messages split into parts of 153 or 67 characters. The SMS meter shows which alphabet your text needs, the number of parts and the characters that force the longer encoding.

How are words counted?

The text is split on white space, so “e-mail” and “don’t” are one word each and a dash on its own is not a word. This is how word processors count. Chinese, Japanese and Thai are written without spaces, so those are split using the browser’s word-break rules instead.

How long should a meta title and description be?

Google shows roughly 60 characters of a page title and 155 to 160 of a description on desktop, but it cuts by pixel width, so a title full of wide letters is cut sooner. Treat 60 and 160 as guides. The Google result meters on this page show how close you are.

How do you work out reading and speaking time?

Reading time uses 238 words per minute, the average found for adults reading non-fiction silently in a 2019 review of studies. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a common pace for a presentation. Both speeds can be changed on the page.

Is my text uploaded or saved?

No. The counting runs in your browser and the text is not sent anywhere or stored. If you close the tab the text is gone, so copy or download anything you want to keep.

Guides that explain the rules

Related tools

This tool produces a document from the information you type. It does not give legal, tax or accounting advice, and it does not check that your figures or rates are right. See the disclaimer. Found a mistake? Report an error in a calculation.