What a character counter does
A character counter tells you how long a piece of text is, measured in characters instead of words. That sounds simple, but it is the number that decides whether a post fits, whether a text message is sent as one part or two, and whether a form field accepts your answer. If you want to know how many words you have, the word counter is the better tool. When a limit is written in characters, use this one.
This page shows your counts as you type: characters with spaces, characters without spaces, letters, digits, spaces, punctuation and symbols, lines, and the size of the text in bytes. Everything is calculated in your browser.
Characters with spaces and without spaces
The main number on this page includes every space, tab and line break. Most limits work this way, because a space takes up room just like a letter does. The second number leaves white space out. It is useful for tasks that ask for "characters, no spaces", and for a quick feel of how much real content you have written.
The two numbers always differ by the number shown as Spaces. If your text has 120 characters and 20 spaces, it has 100 characters without spaces.
How this tool counts
The tool counts characters the way a reader sees them, not the way a computer stores them. Computers store text as code points, and a single visible symbol is sometimes built from several. This tool groups those pieces back together using the browser's grapheme segmentation, so you get the number a person would count by eye.
- Accented letters count once. An "é" typed as one symbol and an "e" followed by a separate accent mark both give one character.
- Emoji count once. A simple emoji such as a rocket is one character. So are a flag, an emoji with a skin tone, and a family emoji made of three people joined together, even though that last one is stored as five code points.
- Line breaks count once, including the two-part Windows line break. Each break is counted as a space character and adds one to the line total.
- Everything else is grouped by its first symbol: letters, digits, white space, or punctuation and symbols. Emoji land in the punctuation and symbols group.
For very large texts, over about 300,000 characters, the tool switches to a faster method that treats joined emoji and accent marks the same way. The totals stay the same for ordinary text.
The UTF-8 size is how many bytes the text takes when saved. English letters use one byte each, while accented letters use two and most emoji use four. This matters for databases, APIs and file formats that limit bytes rather than characters.
Why platforms count differently
You may find that a platform shows a different number than this page. That does not mean either number is wrong. Platforms apply their own rules, for example:
- they may give emoji or some scripts extra weight;
- they may count a link as a fixed length, whatever its real length;
- they may count bytes, or characters of a particular encoding, instead of what you see;
- they may trim spaces or line breaks that you typed.
Because these rules change, treat this tool as a close guide and confirm the final count in the platform's own composer before you publish or send.
How to use the presets
Under the counts you will find a menu of limits. Pick one and the tool shows how many characters you have left, or by how many you are over. A progress bar fills as you approach the limit, and the state is also written out in words: within limit, near limit, or over limit. Near limit starts when you have used 90 percent of the space.
Each preset lists the page where its number was checked and the date of the check. Limits change from time to time, so if a number looks out of date, trust the platform's own help page and tell us. Presets count plain characters, so where a note mentions weighted counting, expect the platform's own number to differ.
Two worked examples
Example 1: letters, digits and an accent
Input:
Hello, café! See you at 9.
Output: 26 characters with spaces and 21 without. That is 17 letters, 1 digit, 5 spaces and 3 punctuation marks, on 1 line. The UTF-8 size is 27 bytes, one more than the character count, because "é" takes two bytes.
Example 2: emoji
Input:
Launch day 🚀🚀!
Output: 14 characters with spaces and 12 without. That is 9 letters, 2 spaces and 3 punctuation or symbol characters, which are the two rockets and the exclamation mark. The UTF-8 size is 20 bytes, since each rocket takes four. A platform that gives each emoji double weight would count this text as longer than 14, which is why the platform's own composer has the final say.
Tips for staying under a limit
- Write first, trim later. Draft freely, then cut until the status shows within limit.
- Remove filler such as "really", "just" and "in order to". Each cut saves several characters.
- Prefer short words. "Use" saves four characters over "utilize".
- Check for double spaces and stray line breaks. The Spaces and Lines numbers reveal them.
- Put the key message first. Many feeds show only the start of a long post.
- Leave a few characters spare for the cases where the platform counts differently.
Your text stays private
All counting happens on your own device, inside the page. Your text is not uploaded, saved or shared, and no account is needed. When you close or refresh the tab, the text is gone. You can read how the whole site handles data in the privacy policy.