Character Counter

Count characters, words, sentences, and lines as you type, with live limits for X, Instagram, SMS, and other platforms — see exactly how much room you have left.

Your text

Characters

Without spaces

Words

Sentences

Lines

Platform limits

X / Twitter post0 / 280

Instagram caption0 / 2200

Instagram bio0 / 150

SMS (single segment)0 / 160

Facebook post (visible before "See more")0 / 477

LinkedIn post0 / 3000

YouTube title0 / 100

Meta description (SEO)0 / 160

How was this tool?

Your feedback helps us improve Character Counter.

Why use Character Counter?

Character limits are stricter than word limits and easier to blow past without noticing — a single long word or a few extra emoji can push a caption over Instagram's bio limit or split an SMS into a second segment. Watching the count live, against the actual limit for where the text is going, catches this before you hit publish or send. This tracks characters (with and without spaces), words, sentences, and lines simultaneously, plus eight common platform limits shown side by side — so instead of checking one limit at a time, you see immediately which platforms your text still fits and which it's already over.

Key benefits

Live counts as you type, no button to click
Platform limits built in — X, Instagram, SMS, LinkedIn, YouTube, meta descriptions
Counts with and without spaces
Free, no account required

Features

Character count with and without spaces
Word, sentence, and line counts
Eight built-in platform limit presets

Popular use cases

Fitting a caption within Instagram's or X's limit
Checking an SMS won't split into multiple segments
Writing a meta description within Google's practical display limit
Trimming a LinkedIn post or YouTube title to fit

How to use Character Counter

1
Paste or type your text
Any length.
2
Read the counts
Characters, words, sentences, and lines update live.
3
Check platform limits
See how close you are to common platform limits, flagged in red if over.

Frequently asked questions

Why does character count matter for SMS?

A standard SMS segment is 160 characters (or 70 for messages using certain special characters/emoji) — going over splits the message into multiple segments, which can cost more or arrive out of order depending on the carrier and app.

What's the practical limit for a meta description?

Google doesn't enforce a strict character limit, but around 155-160 characters is the commonly used practical target before the snippet gets truncated in search results, which is why it's included as a preset here.

Does this count emoji correctly?

Most emoji count as 1-2 characters depending on how they're encoded, consistent with how the destination platform typically counts them, though some complex multi-part emoji can count differently on specific platforms.

Last reviewed: September 2026

Platform limits

How was this tool?

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