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SPCXTools

Character Counter

Count characters as you type and see instantly whether your text fits each platform's limit.

Runs locally — files never leave your device

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How to use Character Counter

  1. 1Type or paste your text into the box.
  2. 2Read the number of characters (with and without spaces), words, lines and bytes.
  3. 3Check the bars for each platform — they turn red when you go over the limit.
  4. 4For text messages, see how many SMS parts your message will use.

Count characters for every platform

Character limits are everywhere: posts on X, Instagram captions, LinkedIn updates, YouTube titles, SEO title tags and meta descriptions, app store descriptions, SMS messages and form fields. This character counter shows you the length of your text in characters, words, lines and bytes as you type, and compares it with the limits of the most common platforms so you know at a glance whether it fits.

Features

  • Characters with and without spaces, counted as people see them (emoji-safe).
  • Words, lines and UTF-8 bytes.
  • Live limit bars for X, SEO titles, meta descriptions, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
  • SMS calculator with GSM-7/UCS-2 detection and message parts.
  • Private: nothing you type leaves your browser.

Common character limits

Where Limit
X (Twitter) post 280 characters
SEO title tag ~60 characters
Meta description ~160 characters
YouTube video title 100 characters
Instagram caption 2,200 characters
LinkedIn post 3,000 characters
SMS (standard characters) 160 per message, 153 per part
SMS (emoji or non-Latin) 70 per message, 67 per part

Tips for writing to a limit

  • Front-load the important words, especially in titles and descriptions that may be cut.
  • Remove filler such as "very", "really" and "in order to".
  • Use numerals ("5" instead of "five") where the style allows.
  • Watch for hidden characters — pasted text can contain line breaks and double spaces; clean them up with Remove Line Breaks.

Related tools

Get reading time and sentence counts with the Word Counter, fix capitalization with the Case Converter, or find your most-used words with the Word Frequency Counter.

Frequently asked questions

How are characters counted?
Characters are counted the way you see them, so an emoji like 👍🏽 or an accented letter made of several code points counts as one. Spaces and line breaks count as characters; the "without spaces" figure excludes all whitespace.
Is the X (Twitter) count exact?
It's a close estimate. X counts most characters as one, but counts links as 23 characters and Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters as two. Very long texts may also use X Premium limits.
How long should an SEO title and meta description be?
Search engines cut titles at roughly 50–60 characters and descriptions at about 150–160 characters (they actually measure pixel width). Keeping within those limits means your full message shows in results.
Why does one emoji make my SMS so much shorter?
A standard SMS uses the GSM-7 alphabet and holds 160 characters. Any character outside it — emoji, Chinese, many accented letters — switches the whole message to UCS-2 encoding, which holds only 70 characters. Long messages are split into parts of 153 or 67 characters.
What does the byte count mean?
It's the size of the text in UTF-8, the encoding used on the web. English letters take 1 byte, accented letters 2, most Chinese and Japanese characters 3 and emoji 4. Some databases and APIs limit bytes rather than characters.

Related tools

Word CounterCount words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with reading and speaking time.Case ConverterChange text to any letter case — from Title Case to snake_case — and see every format at once.Remove Line BreaksFix text with broken lines — keep the paragraphs, join the lines, or turn a list into a comma-separated line.Word Frequency CounterFind the most frequent words and phrases in any text, with counts, percentages and CSV export.Binary TranslatorTurn words into 0s and 1s — and decode binary, hex, decimal or octal back into readable text.Diff CheckerPaste two versions of a text and instantly see what was added, removed or changed.