Character Counter
Character limits shape posts, ads, forms, snippets and SMS messages. X posts still start at 280 characters for standard posts, SMS often splits after 160 GSM-7 characters, and search snippets can truncate when titles or descriptions run long. Paste or type your text to see live totals for characters, characters without spaces, words, lines, sentences and paragraphs, plus a breakdown of letters, digits, punctuation and case.
How the character counter works
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1
Paste or type into the text area
Use plain text, drafts, captions, form answers or code snippets. The counters update as you edit.
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2
Review the live totals
See characters with spaces, characters without spaces, words, lines, sentences and paragraphs.
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3
Check the breakdown
Compare letters, digits, special characters, uppercase letters, lowercase letters and the most frequent characters.
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4
Copy your text into its final field
Use the numbers to trim a post, tighten an ad headline, check an SMS segment or keep a form answer within its limit.
Common character limits
| Platform or context | Typical limit | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| SMS, GSM-7 segment | 160 characters | Longer messages may split into multiple billable segments. |
| SMS, Unicode segment | 70 characters | Emoji and many non-Latin scripts can reduce the per-segment limit. |
| X standard post | 280 characters | Longer posts are available only for some paid accounts. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters | Long captions may be hidden behind “more”. |
| Instagram bio | 150 characters | Short profile copy needs tight wording. |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters | Feeds usually show only the opening lines before “see more”. |
| YouTube title | 100 characters | Mobile and search surfaces often truncate earlier. |
| YouTube description | 5,000 characters | The first lines carry the most visible context. |
| Meta title | about 60 characters | Search result display width varies by device and language. |
| Meta description | about 155-160 characters | Search engines may rewrite or truncate long snippets. |
| Google Ads headline | 30 characters each | Responsive search ads can use multiple headlines. |
| Google Ads description | 90 characters each | Short descriptions are easier to combine in ads. |
What the counters mean
- Total characters includes spaces, line breaks, punctuation, symbols, emoji and letters.
- No-spaces count removes whitespace, useful for strict database fields, usernames or compact UI labels.
- Words are detected with Unicode-aware tokens that keep internal hyphens and apostrophes and handle non-Latin letter runs. CJK and Thai word segmentation is approximate because the counter does not use a dictionary segmenter.
- Sentences count punctuation marks such as
.,?and!. Abbreviations can still affect the result. - Paragraphs are separated by blank lines. Lines count single line breaks.
- Character breakdown separates letters, digits, special characters and letter case. The funnel view also shows the most frequent characters.
Good checks before publishing
- Social posts: make sure the opening text fits before any “more” fold.
- SEO fields: compare titles and descriptions against the usual search-result ranges.
- SMS campaigns: watch the total length when emoji, accents or non-Latin scripts are present.
- Forms and applications: draft the answer here, trim it, then paste into the final field.
- Localization QA: compare text expansion across languages before placing copy in a fixed layout.
Frequently Asked Questions
Simple emoji usually count as one. Emoji made from several joined symbols, skin tones or family sequences may count as more than one underlying character, so always test the exact text you plan to publish.
Those languages often do not use spaces between words. This tool groups Unicode letter and number runs, but without dictionary segmentation it cannot split every Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Thai word like a native tokenizer, so treat word counts as approximate and use character totals for strict limits.
Yes, as a quick planning check. For X, use the Twitter character counter when weighted counting matters, because X applies special rules for emoji, URLs and some Unicode ranges. For SMS and ads, confirm critical copy in the final platform too.
No account or database copy is saved. Your text is sent to the server so Livewire can calculate and refresh the live counts, then the page displays the result. Avoid pasting passwords, private keys or highly sensitive text into any online tool.
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