Free Online Character Counter
Track character count against Twitter/X, SMS, and custom limits
Character Statistics
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If you're trimming text to hit a character limit, you're already editing harder than most people. Grammarly is solid for that kind of tight writing because it catches awkward phrasing and redundant words you'd otherwise skim right past. We keep it open whenever we're squeezing copy into a tweet or meta description. (We may earn a commission, at no cost to you.)
Why use Character Counter
- Presets for Twitter/X, SMS, and meta descriptions remove the guesswork around platform limits.
- Color-coded progress bar turns yellow near the cap and red when exceeded.
- Unicode-aware counting matches how platforms actually measure emojis and special characters.
How it works
The counter iterates through your input using JavaScript's spread operator, which correctly handles multi-byte Unicode characters like emojis as single units rather than splitting them into surrogate pairs. Each character is tallied against the active platform limit, and the progress bar recalculates on every input event. The with-spaces count uses the full string length; the without-spaces count filters out whitespace before measuring. Color thresholds: green below 80%, yellow between 80-100%, red above 100%.
About this tool
You are three characters over the Twitter/X limit and you cannot tell which word to cut. Paste the text here and see exactly where you stand. Built-in presets for Twitter/X (280 characters), SMS (160), and Google meta descriptions (155) show a live progress bar that shifts from green to yellow to red as you approach the cap. The count is Unicode-aware. Emojis that consume 2+ characters due to UTF-16 encoding are measured the same way the platform measures them, so the number here matches what you see after posting. Both with-spaces and without-spaces counts appear side by side because platforms differ. SMS over 160 characters splits into 153-character segments with concatenation headers, doubling your cost. YouTube titles truncate in search around 65 characters. LinkedIn shows only the first 210 characters before the "see more" fold. Set a custom limit for any platform the presets do not cover. The bar recalibrates on the spot.
How to use Character Counter
- Paste your text. Drop your copy into the text area. The character count starts updating immediately.
- Pick a platform preset. Click Twitter (280), SMS (160), or Meta Description (155). A progress bar appears, shifting color as you near the limit.
- Review both counts. With-spaces and without-spaces counts sit side by side. Twitter counts spaces; some other platforms do not.
- Trim and copy. Edit until the bar turns green, then click Copy.
Use cases
- Drafting a Twitter/X thread and confirming each tweet fits 280 characters before scheduling.
- Writing meta descriptions for 50 product pages and catching any that exceed Google's 155-character display window.
- Checking that an SMS marketing message stays within 160 characters to avoid double-segment billing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Twitter/X: 280, Instagram captions: 2,200, Instagram bios: 150, YouTube titles: 100, TikTok captions: 2,200, LinkedIn posts: 3,000. These shift periodically, so check the platform if you are close to the edge.
On virtually all platforms, yes. This tool shows both counts side by side so you can use whichever your target platform requires.
Most emojis count as 2 or more characters because of how Unicode encoding works. Flag emojis and family emojis can consume 4-7 characters. This tool uses Unicode-aware counting that reflects how platforms actually measure your text.
Google displays roughly 150-160 characters before truncating. Aim for 150-155 to keep the full description visible. Going over does not hurt SEO directly, but the extra text gets replaced by an ellipsis in search results.
Yes. A line break is one character, or two on systems using carriage return + line feed.
Twitter/X allows 280 characters per tweet. URLs always count as 23 characters regardless of actual length. Select the Twitter preset above to track your remaining count.
160 characters per segment. Messages exceeding 160 split into 153-character segments because 7 characters are consumed by concatenation headers. That split doubles your messaging cost, which is why the SMS preset is useful for marketing copy.
About 210 characters. Front-loading your key point in the first 200 characters tends to improve engagement since most users never expand the post.
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