How to count characters
- Type or paste your text into the box.
- Choose a Limit if you have one, such as an X post or a meta description.
- Read the Characters tile and the bar under the result. The bar turns amber near the limit and red when you go over.
- Edit your text until you are under the limit. The numbers update on every keystroke.
What it shows
You get characters, characters without spaces, words, lines and the size in UTF-8 bytes. When you pick a limit, you also see how many characters are Remaining, or how many are Over limit.
Characters are counted as grapheme clusters, which is a technical name for what a reader sees as one symbol. A family emoji made of several joined parts counts as one. A Hindi letter with its vowel sign counts as one. This is closer to what posting sites show than a simple length count.
For a count of words and reading time, use the word counter instead.
Tips
- Meta descriptions over about 160 characters are often cut off in search results. Aim for 120 to 155.
- Writing a URL? Build a short, clean one with the slug generator and keep it well under the limit.
- Trailing spaces and line breaks count as characters. Use remove line breaks if a pasted block carries extra ones.
- Need sample text to test a layout against a limit? The lorem ipsum generator can make text of an exact length in words or sentences.
Where limits come from
Limits exist because screens, networks and databases have fixed room. Search engines cut long titles and descriptions to fit the result card. Short message systems split long texts into parts, and each part is billed. Social sites set a cap so every post fits the feed. Knowing the number before you publish saves a rewrite later.
Privacy
Your text is counted on your device. It is not uploaded, stored on a server, or placed in the page address. The tool only remembers the limit you picked.