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Free Character Counter Online

Count characters, words, lines, and UTF-8 bytes in real time, with live limit bars for Google, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and SMS.

  • 100% free
  • No signup
  • Runs in your browser
Characters
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No spaces
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Words
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Bytes (UTF-8)
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SEO & Platform Limits

Character Frequency (a–z)

Guide

Why character counts matter

Many places online enforce hard character limits, and going over means your text is cut off or rejected. This counter tracks characters, words, lines, and UTF-8 bytes in real time, with live limit bars for the platforms people hit most often, so you can trim to fit before you publish rather than after.

Characters with vs. without spaces

The same text has two valid character counts depending on whether spaces are included. "With spaces" is the total length as typed and is what most social and SEO limits use. "Without spaces" counts only visible characters and is sometimes requested for translation pricing or strict typographic limits. This tool shows both so you always have the number a given field expects.

Common limits to know

  • Google title tag: aim for about 50 to 60 characters before it gets truncated in search results.
  • Google meta description: roughly 150 to 160 characters.
  • X (Twitter) post: 280 characters.
  • SMS: 160 characters per single message (longer texts split into segments).

Characters vs. bytes

A character is not always one byte. In UTF-8, plain English letters take one byte each, but accented letters, other scripts, and emoji take two to four. Some systems (databases, SMS, certain APIs) limit by bytes rather than characters, so an emoji-heavy message can exceed a byte limit while looking short. This tool's live byte count catches that.

Last updated: July 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between characters with and without spaces?
Characters with spaces counts every character including spaces. Characters without spaces only counts letters, numbers, and punctuation - useful for comparing text density.
How many characters should a meta title be?
Google typically displays meta titles up to 60 characters. Titles between 50–60 characters use the available space well. Titles over 60 characters may be truncated in search results.
How many characters is a tweet?
X (formerly Twitter) allows up to 280 characters per post. URLs are always counted as 23 characters regardless of their actual length.
What is a byte count?
Byte count measures the actual storage size of text. Standard ASCII characters use 1 byte each. Unicode characters (emoji, accented letters, non-Latin scripts) can use 2–4 bytes each.
How many characters is a standard SMS?
A standard SMS supports 160 characters using GSM-7 encoding. Messages over 160 characters are split into multiple parts of 153 characters each due to header overhead.