Character Counter
Live character counts with the limits that matter โ tweets, bios, SMS.
About this counter
Type or paste and watch three live numbers โ characters, characters without spaces, words โ plus progress bars against the limits people actually bump into: 280 for X, 150 for an Instagram bio, 160 before an SMS splits, 60 before a page title truncates in search. Emoji count as one character here.
The limits, and their fine print
Each platform counts slightly differently, and the fine print bites: X counts most emoji as two characters and every URL as 23 regardless of length; an SMS holds 160 characters but a two-message text drops to 153 per segment (the bar shows the segment count) โ and one emoji switches the whole message to 70-character Unicode segments, which is why one ๐ can triple your SMS bill. Meta titles and descriptions truncate by pixel width, so 60 and 160 characters are safe approximations rather than hard walls โ the meta tag generator watches those for you. For reading time, sentences and paragraph statistics, the full text counter goes deeper.
Frequently asked questions
How does X (Twitter) count characters?
280 per post, but most emoji count as two, and every link counts as exactly 23 characters no matter its real length. CJK characters also weigh double. The bar here uses plain character count โ leave margin when emoji-heavy.
Why did my SMS become three messages?
Past 160 characters, texts split into 153-character segments (7 characters go to segment headers). And any emoji or special character switches the encoding to 70-character segments โ the counter flags the segment count.
Do spaces count as characters?
Yes, on every platform โ which is why both counts are shown. 'Without spaces' matters mainly for essays graded by character count.
How are emoji counted here?
As one character each (user-perceived characters). Platforms vary โ X counts most as two โ so treat emoji-heavy text as needing headroom.