Character Counter with Social Media, SEO and SMS Limits

What is a character counter used for?

Many places set a hard limit on how much you can write: a post, a caption, a title, a form field, a text message. Going over means your text is cut off or rejected, and falling far short can waste space that could carry your message. A character counter shows exactly where you stand while you write.

This one counts every character, with and without spaces, and then compares the total against the limits of popular platforms. The colored bars fill as you type and turn red when you go over, so you can see which platforms your text fits before you publish.

How to use the character counter

1. Type or paste your text into the box.
2. Read the totals: characters, characters without spaces, words, lines, size in bytes and SMS segments.
3. Scroll to the platform limits. Each bar shows how many characters you have used and how many are left.
4. Edit until the bar for your platform is no longer red, then copy the text.
5. Leave a few characters spare, because platforms sometimes count links and emoji in their own way.

Characters, spaces and emoji

Most platforms count spaces and punctuation as characters, so the main count includes them. The no-spaces count is useful for forms and exercises that ask for it. Emoji and some accented or non-Latin letters can be made of several code units inside a computer, so this tool counts what you see: one emoji counts as one character, and the byte total shows how much space the text uses when it is stored as UTF-8.

Platforms can still disagree. X, for example, counts a web link as a fixed length instead of its real length, and some apps count emoji as two characters. Use the bars as a close guide and test the final post on the platform when the limit is tight.

SMS length and segments

A single text message can hold 160 characters in the standard GSM-7 alphabet. If the message contains characters outside that alphabet, such as many emoji or non-Latin scripts, it switches to Unicode and the limit drops to 70 characters. Longer messages are split into segments of 153 characters (GSM-7) or 67 characters (Unicode), and you may be billed for every segment. The SMS bar and the segments figure help you keep marketing and alert texts within budget.

Character limits for SEO

• Title tag: Google shows roughly the first 60 characters, depending on the width of the letters, so put the main keyword early.
• Meta description: around 150 to 160 characters usually display fully. It does not affect ranking directly, but a clear description can improve clicks.
• Image alt text: keep it short and descriptive, usually under 125 characters.
• URL slug: shorter is easier to read and share. Try the URL Slug Generator.
• Headings: there is no hard limit, but concise headings are easier to scan.

Tips for writing within a limit

• Put the most important words first, in case a platform shortens the text.
• Replace long phrases with short ones and remove filler words.
• Use numerals instead of spelled-out numbers where it reads naturally.
• Check the limit again before you publish, because platforms change their rules from time to time.

Common character limits

Frequently Asked Questions