How this character counter works
Type or paste text in the box above. The counter shows the number of characters with spaces, without spaces, words, lines and more, instantly. It is free, needs no account, and the counting runs entirely in your browser: the text is not uploaded.
A "character" is any letter, digit, space, punctuation mark, line break or symbol. That sounds simple until you paste an emoji or an accented word copied from a PDF. This counter shows each way of counting side by side, so you can pick the one your platform uses:
- Characters: Unicode code points, the usual meaning of "character". Spaces and line breaks count.
- Without spaces: the same count with every space, tab and line break removed.
- Visible characters: what your eyes see as one symbol. A family emoji such as 👨👩👧👦 is built from 7 code points but is one visible character. Bluesky counts this way.
- UTF-16 code units: what JavaScript's
lengthand the HTMLmaxlengthattribute count. Most emoji take 2 units here. - UTF-8 bytes: the storage size. An English letter is 1 byte, é is 2, € is 3, most emoji are 4.
Limits for social networks, SMS and search results
The Limits panel checks your text against common caps at the same time. Select one and everything past the limit is highlighted in the text, so you can see exactly where to cut.
| Where | Limit | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 | Weighted: links count 23, emoji and CJK characters count 2 |
| Bluesky post | 300 | Visible characters (graphemes) |
| Threads post | 500 | Characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | Characters |
| TikTok caption | 4,000 | Characters |
| YouTube title / description | 100 / 5,000 | Characters / UTF-8 bytes |
| Google title link | about 580 px | Pixel width, roughly 60 characters |
| Meta description | about 920 px | Pixel width, roughly 155 to 160 characters |
| SMS | 160 or 70 | GSM 7-bit alphabet or Unicode, per segment |
Each platform has its own page with the details: X character counter, Instagram, LinkedIn, SMS segments and title and meta description length.
Words, sentences and reading time
Words are found with the browser's own language rules (the Intl.Segmenter standard), so French elisions like l'été, Spanish punctuation like ¿Qué? and Chinese or Japanese text without spaces are handled properly. A hyphenated compound such as well-known counts as one word, as in Microsoft Word. Reading time uses 238 words per minute, the average silent reading rate for non-fiction found in a 2019 meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert. Speaking time uses 150 words per minute, a common pace for presentations.
Useful details
- Set a target (for example 500 characters or 1,000 words) to get your own gauge.
- Drop a .txt file on the box, or open one with the button.
- Clearing the text can be undone from the message that appears, or with Ctrl+Z.
- Your text is not saved unless you tick "Keep my text in this browser". It is then stored on your device only.
Frequently asked questions
Is this character counter free?
Yes. There is no account, no limit on the number of uses and no advertising. The page also works offline once loaded, because every count is computed in your browser.
Does the counter include spaces?
The main "Characters" figure includes spaces and line breaks. The "Without spaces" figure removes every space, tab and line break. Both are shown at all times; see the character counter with and without spaces for the details.
Why does an emoji count as more than one character?
An emoji can be made of several Unicode code points joined together: a skin tone modifier, a variation selector, or a zero width joiner between people in a family emoji. Platforms that count code points or UTF-16 units see several characters. The "Visible characters" line counts what you see as one symbol.
Is my text stored or sent to a server?
No. The page has no analytics, no cookies and no third-party scripts, and the counting code never sends the text anywhere. If you choose to keep your text in the browser, it is stored in your device's local storage and you can remove it by unticking the box.
How accurate is the word count?
It follows the Unicode word boundary rules built into your browser, with language-specific handling. Results match common word processors for most texts. Numbers count as words; punctuation and emoji do not.
Can I count characters for a specific limit?
Yes. Pick a platform in the Limits panel, or type your own target with a unit (characters, characters without spaces or words). Whatever exceeds the limit is highlighted in the text.