How to use Character Counter
- 1Paste or type your text into the box
- 2Read the character count, updating on every keystroke
- 3Compare the with-spaces and without-spaces totals
- 4Trim the text until it fits the limit you are working to
- 5Copy the finished text back out
What Character Counter does
Character limits are everywhere — meta descriptions, SMS, bios, form fields, database columns — and almost none of them say which definition of "character" they mean. The two obvious ones diverge immediately: a 200-character bio with normal spacing loses roughly a sixth of its capacity depending on whether spaces are counted.
There is a subtler problem underneath. What a computer counts as one character is not always what you see. An emoji is usually two units, a flag emoji four, and an accented letter can be one or two depending on how it was typed. This counter reports code units, which is what JavaScript, most databases and most form validators also count — so the number here matches the thing that will reject your text.
When to use it
- Meta descriptions and page titles
- Search engines truncate around 155–160 characters for a description and 60 for a title. Writing to the number rather than guessing avoids a snippet that stops mid-sentence.
- Social bios and posts
- Profile bios are commonly capped between 150 and 160 characters. Emoji make this harder than it looks, since most count as two rather than one.
- Text messages
- An SMS holds 160 characters — but only 70 once any character outside the basic Latin set appears, which includes most emoji and many accented letters.
- Translation and copywriting quotes
- Agencies commonly price by characters excluding spaces. Having that specific figure available avoids recalculating it by hand.
Character Counter settings explained
- Characters
- Every character in the box, spaces and line breaks included. This is what most form validators and social platforms measure, and the figure to use unless you have been told otherwise.
- Without spaces
- The same count with all whitespace removed — spaces, tabs and line breaks. Translation agencies and some typesetting work price by this figure, and a few form fields use it.
- Words
- Included for context, split on whitespace. Useful for judging whether a piece that fits a character limit still reads as complete rather than clipped.
- Lines
- The number of line breaks plus one. Relevant for fields with a row limit, and for checking that a pasted list arrived with the structure you expected.
Character limits worth knowing
| Where | Limit | Counts spaces? |
|---|---|---|
| Meta description | ~155–160 | Yes |
| Page title | ~60 | Yes |
| SMS (basic Latin) | 160 | Yes |
| SMS (with emoji or accents) | 70 | Yes |
| Translation quotes | Varies | Usually not |
Limits and what to expect
- Emoji generally count as two characters, and flags or skin-tone variants as four or more — this matches what most systems count.
- Accented letters may count as one or two depending on how the source encoded them.
- Line breaks count as characters; text pasted from a PDF often carries far more of them than expected.
- Text is not saved anywhere — reloading the tab clears the box.
Troubleshooting
- My text fits here but the form still rejects it
- The form is probably counting without spaces, or applying a stricter definition. Compare both figures shown here against the limit; the without-spaces number is usually the smaller of the two and worth checking against.
- An emoji added two to the count
- That is correct and matches what most systems do. Emoji outside the oldest set are stored as two units, and flags or skin-tone variants as four or more. A bio that just fits without emoji will overflow once you add them.
- The count is higher than my word processor's
- Word processors often exclude footnotes, headers and text boxes from the count, and none of those survive a copy-paste. Copy the body text alone and the figures should agree.
- Pasted text has far more lines than expected
- PDFs break lines at the edge of the page rather than the end of a sentence, so pasted text arrives with a hard break on every visual line. The character count is unaffected; only the line figure is misleading.
Your files and your privacy
Counting runs in JavaScript inside the page. No request is made as you type, nothing is stored, and no draft survives the tab closing. The tool works with the network disconnected, which is the simplest way to confirm that the text you paste is not going anywhere.
What to use next
FAQ
Does the count include spaces?
Both figures are shown. The main count includes spaces and line breaks, which is what most form fields and social platforms measure. A second figure excludes all whitespace, which is what translation agencies and some typesetting work use.
How many characters is a tweet or a bio?
Profile bios are commonly capped between 150 and 160 characters including spaces. Post limits vary by platform and tier. Note that emoji usually count as two, so a bio that fits without them can overflow once they are added.
Why do emoji count as more than one character?
Because they are stored as more than one unit. Most emoji occupy two code units, and flags or skin-tone variants four or more. This counter reports code units, which is what JavaScript, most databases and most form validators also count — so the number matches whatever will accept or reject your text.
How long can a text message be?
160 characters if the whole message uses the basic Latin set. Introduce a single emoji, an accented letter or a curly quote and the encoding changes for the entire message, dropping the limit to 70 characters per segment.
Is there a limit on how much text I can paste?
No limit is enforced. Because the count recalculates on every keystroke, extremely long documents can make typing feel sluggish, but pasting and reading the totals works at any length.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Counting happens inside your browser with no network request at any point, and nothing is stored or logged.