Character Counter
Count characters, words and sentences. Check Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn character limits.
Character counting explained
A character counter measures text at the most granular level β every letter, digit, space, punctuation mark, and line break counts as one character. This is distinct from word count, which groups characters into tokens. Most social platforms and content management systems enforce character limits rather than word limits, making character counting the more practical measurement for digital writing.
Platform character limits reference
| Platform / Field | Limit | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter/X post | 280 | 71β100 (gets most engagement) |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | 125β150 (shows before "more" truncation) |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | 150β300 (optimal for feed) |
| Facebook post | 63,206 | 40β80 (highest engagement) |
| YouTube title | 100 | 60 (fully visible in search) |
| YouTube description | 5,000 | 250 (visible above fold) |
| Google meta title | ~580px / ~60 chars | 50β60 characters |
| Google meta description | ~920px / ~155 chars | 120β155 characters |
| Email subject line | Varies | 41β50 chars (mobile-friendly) |
| SMS | 160 (single) | 160 or fewer to avoid multipart |
| Google Ads headline | 30 | 25β30 (use all available space) |
| Google Ads description | 90 | 80β90 |
Unicode and multi-byte characters
Not all characters are equal in byte count, even if they appear as one symbol on screen. Standard ASCII characters (AβZ, 0β9, basic punctuation) take 1 byte in UTF-8. Most European accented characters (Γ©, ΓΌ, Γ±) take 2 bytes. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters take 3 bytes. Emoji take 4 bytes and may count as 2 characters in JavaScript's string model (UTF-16 surrogate pairs). Twitter counts emoji as 2 characters, not 1, for this reason.
"Hello" β 5 characters, 5 bytes (ASCII)
"HΓ©llo" β 5 characters, 6 bytes (UTF-8; Γ© = 2 bytes)
"δ½ ε₯½" β 2 characters, 6 bytes (each CJK = 3 bytes)
"π" β 1 visible character, 4 bytes, 2 JS string units
Twitter character counting:
"Hello world" β 11 characters β
"Hello π" β 8 characters (emoji counts as 2)Frequently asked questions
Why count characters instead of words?
Many platforms enforce character limits β tweets, SMS, meta descriptions, bios. Counting characters ensures your text fits before you publish.
Does it count spaces?
It shows both totals β characters including spaces and characters excluding spaces β because different platforms count them differently.
What are common character limits?
Examples: SMS 160, X/Twitter 280, meta description ~160, Instagram caption 2,200, and a meta title around 60 characters.
Is an emoji one character?
Visually yes, but many emoji are made of multiple Unicode code points, so some platforms count them as two or more characters. The tool reflects the underlying character count.
Paste or type any text to instantly see character counts, word counts and how your text fits within platform limits. Meta descriptions: aim for 120β160 characters. Twitter: 280 characters. LinkedIn: 3000 characters for posts.