Character counter
Type or paste text to count its characters and see how much room is left for an X post, an Instagram caption, a meta description or an SMS. It also shows how many SMS messages your text will be split into.
- ๐ Runs on your device
- โค 0 bytes uploaded
- ๐ด Works offline
- โ Free, no sign-up, no watermark
How to use Character Counter
- Type or paste your text.
- Read the character count and the meters for each platform.
- If your SMS switched to Unicode, replace smart quotes and dashes with one click.
- Copy your text back when it fits.
About Character Counter
Different systems count "characters" differently. This tool counts what a reader sees as one character (a grapheme), and also shows UTF-8 bytes, used by many databases and APIs, and UTF-16 units, used by JavaScript and some form limits.
The SMS meter follows the GSM 03.38 standard, including the extension table (^ { } [ ] ~ | โฌ \ count as two) and the rule that one non-GSM character turns the whole message into Unicode.
Is it private?
Yes. Character Counter runs entirely in your web browser. What you type is never sent to Nolo or anyone else, and the page cannot send it anywhere: its security policy only allows it to talk to nolotools.com, which has no place to receive data. Nothing is stored either: close the page and it is gone. How Nolo works.
Questions and answers
Is my text uploaded?
No. Counting happens in your browser; nothing you type is sent or stored.
How does X (Twitter) count characters?
Most letters, digits and punctuation count as 1. Emoji, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters count as 2. Every link counts as 23 no matter how long it is, because X shortens it. The meter follows these rules; the limit for normal accounts is 280.
Why does my SMS only allow 70 characters?
An SMS uses the GSM-7 alphabet (160 characters) unless the text contains any character outside it, such as an emoji, curly quotes or many accented letters. Then the whole message is sent as Unicode (UCS-2), which fits only 70 characters. The tool lists the characters that caused it.
How are long SMS messages split?
Long messages are sent in parts that your phone joins back together. Each part loses a few characters to a header, so a GSM-7 message fits 153 characters per part and a Unicode message 67. Characters like โฌ and { count as 2 in GSM-7.
How long should a meta description be?
Google usually shows about 155 to 160 characters (it actually cuts by pixel width, around 920 px on desktop). Keep the important part in the first 120 characters.
Does it count emoji as one character?
Yes. The main count uses what you see as one character, so ๐๐ฝ or a flag counts as 1. Bytes (UTF-8) and UTF-16 units are shown too, since some systems count those instead.