Why character counts disagree between tools
Ask three tools to count the same sentence and you can get three answers. The differences hide in the details: whether spaces are included, whether a line break counts as one character or two, and above all how emoji and non-Latin scripts are handled. JavaScript's raw string length counts many emoji as two units; this tool counts Unicode code points, so one visible emoji is one character. Whenever a number matters — a form limit, an ad platform, an exam — find out which rule the target system uses before trusting any counter, including this one.
With spaces or without?
Most modern limits count spaces: X posts, Instagram captions, LinkedIn posts, SMS segments and HTML meta descriptions all do. The no-spaces variant survives mainly in academic traditions and some translation billing, where "characters excluding spaces" is a standard unit. This page shows both at once so you never have to guess which one a requirement means — but when a brief just says "500 characters", it almost always means with spaces.
Common character limits to write against
- SMS: 160 characters per segment with the basic GSM alphabet; 70 when emoji or other non-GSM characters force a different encoding.
- Meta description: roughly 160 characters is the widely used guideline. Google truncates by pixel width rather than a fixed count, so treat 150–160 as a safe zone, not a rule.
- YouTube title: 100 characters is the documented maximum; titles are often cut earlier in search and suggestion cards.
- X (Twitter) post: 280 characters with weighted counting — see the dedicated X character counter for the weighting rules.
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters — details and truncation behavior on the Instagram caption counter page.
These are current commonly documented limits; platforms adjust them from time to time, so verify in the target app if you are within a few characters of the edge.
Practical workflow
Paste your draft, watch the with-spaces total, and edit until the relevant bar sits just under its limit — bars turn red the moment you cross one. For meta descriptions, aim to put the message in the first 150 characters; for SMS marketing, staying a few characters under 160 avoids a surprise second segment on some carriers. If you care about word-level stats too — sentences, reading time, keyword repetition — the full word counter shows everything on one screen, and the sentence counter focuses on structure.
Frequently asked questions
Does the character count include spaces?
Both variants are shown live: "Characters" includes spaces, punctuation and line-break-free whitespace, while "Characters (no spaces)" strips all whitespace first. Most platform limits — X posts, Instagram captions, SMS — count spaces, so the with-spaces number is usually the one to watch.
How are emoji and accented letters counted?
This tool counts Unicode code points, so one emoji or one accented letter counts as 1 character. Raw JavaScript string length would count many emoji as 2, and X (Twitter) deliberately weights most emoji as 2 — so the same text can produce three different "character counts" depending on the rule. The rule used here is stated openly so you can compare.
Is a character counter accurate for SMS length?
As a guide, yes: a single SMS segment holds 160 characters using the basic GSM alphabet. But if your message contains characters outside that alphabet (many emoji or non-Latin letters), carriers switch encoding and a segment shrinks to 70 characters. The 160 bar here assumes the basic alphabet.
Is my text sent to a server to be counted?
No. Counting happens locally in your browser with no network requests, no account and no storage. You can confirm this in your browser developer tools: the network tab stays silent while you type.