📏 Character Counter
Count characters with and without spaces instantly. Free live counter for SMS, meta tags and social posts. No upload.
📏 Character Counter
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About the Character Counter Tool
Character limits are stricter and more common than word limits. Meta descriptions truncate around 160 characters, SMS messages split at 160, and a great many forms and databases enforce hard caps that reject anything longer without explanation.
This counter reports characters both with and without spaces, which matters because different systems count differently. It updates live as you type and runs entirely in your browser.
How to Use Character Counter
- Paste or type your text into the input area.
- The character count updates instantly.
- Check both the with-spaces and without-spaces figures against your requirement.
- Trim directly in the box until you are within the limit.
When to Use This Tool
- Writing meta descriptions that fit within search result display limits
- Composing SMS messages that stay within a single segment
- Meeting character caps on form fields and database columns
- Checking social media post length before publishing
- Verifying content fits a fixed-width display or label
Things Worth Knowing
- Spaces, punctuation, and line breaks all count as characters.
- Emoji frequently count as two or more characters, because they are encoded as multiple code units.
- Some systems count bytes rather than characters, which differs for non-English text.
Quick Facts
| Tool name | Character Counter |
| Category | Text Tools |
| Price | Free — no account, no trial, no watermark |
| Where it runs | Entirely in your browser (client-side) |
| Files uploaded | None — your data never leaves your device |
| File size limit | None imposed; limited only by device memory |
| Works offline | Yes, once the page has loaded |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do spaces count as characters?
In most systems, yes. This tool reports both figures because requirements vary — Twitter counts spaces, while some form validators do not.
Why do emoji count as more than one character?
Emoji are encoded in UTF-16 as surrogate pairs, and many modern emoji combine several code points with joiners. A single visible emoji can count as two, four, or more characters depending on the system.
How long should a meta description be?
Aim for 150–160 characters. Google truncates by pixel width rather than a strict character count, so shorter is safer for titles containing wide capital letters.
What is the SMS character limit?
160 characters for standard GSM encoding. Including any non-GSM character switches the message to UCS-2 encoding, which drops the limit to 70 characters per segment.