Does the count include spaces and punctuation?

Yes. The primary with-spaces figure counts every character including spaces, line breaks, and punctuation, which is what social platforms and form validators measure. A separate no-spaces figure is there for places that ignore whitespace.

Which platform limits are built in?

It tracks X at 280 and X Premium at 4000, single SMS at 160, Google meta description at 160 and title tag at 60, Instagram captions at 2200, LinkedIn posts at 3000, Bluesky at 300, and Facebook posts at 63206.

Why does an emoji sometimes seem to count as two?

Some emoji and accented characters are stored as more than one code unit. The counter reports JavaScript string length, so a character built from a surrogate pair can add two to the total, which mirrors how several messaging platforms bill SMS length.

What is the letters-and-numbers-only count for?

It strips spaces, punctuation, and symbols to leave just alphanumeric characters. That is useful when you care about the visible content length rather than formatting, for example comparing two headlines without spacing differences skewing the result.

FREE · LIVE · 9 PLATFORM LIMITS

Character counter

Count characters with and without spaces, plus see your text against the character limits for Twitter, SMS, meta descriptions, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.

0 characters

With spaces

No spaces

Words

Lines

Add the Character counter to your blog or library guide

Free, no signup. Drop the iframe into any Squarespace, WordPress, Notion, or Springshare LibGuide page in seconds. Your readers count text without leaving your site.

<iframe
  src="https://phrasit.com/embed/character-counter"
  width="100%"
  height="520"
  style="border:0;border-radius:12px"
  title="Character counter by Phrasit"
  loading="lazy">
</iframe>

Need a different size? Adjust height to 360 (compact) or 720 (full).

About the Character counter

The character counter measures the length of your text four ways at once: with spaces, without spaces, letters and numbers only, and word and line totals. Length updates live as you type, and a panel down the side shows how your text sits against the real limits of common platforms.

Use it whenever a field has a hard ceiling. A tweet caps at 280 characters on the free tier, an SEO meta description gets clipped by Google around 160, a title tag around 60, and a single SMS segment holds 160 characters of standard 7-bit text. The tool counts spaces and punctuation as characters, because the platforms do too.

How to use it

Paste or type into the editor; the with-spaces count in the corner moves on every keystroke.
Read the four stat cards for characters with spaces, characters without spaces, word count, and line count.
Scan the platform limits panel to see your live count against each cap as a coloured progress bar.
Watch for a bar turning red, which means you have gone over that platform's limit and the text will be truncated or rejected.
Use Copy to lift the trimmed text back out, or Clear to start fresh.

Examples

Fit a meta description

You paste a 188-character meta description. The Meta description row (160) shows red and over. You cut a redundant clause to land at 154 characters, the bar goes back to primary, and you know Google is unlikely to truncate the snippet in results.

Keep a tweet under 280

A draft tweet reads 296 characters with spaces. The Tweet (X) row flags it as over the free 280 limit. You drop two hashtags and a trailing link, reach 271, and post without X silently cutting the end.

Frequently asked questions

Does the count include spaces and punctuation?: Yes. The primary with-spaces figure counts every character including spaces, line breaks, and punctuation, which is what social platforms and form validators measure. A separate no-spaces figure is there for places that ignore whitespace.
Which platform limits are built in?: It tracks X at 280 and X Premium at 4000, single SMS at 160, Google meta description at 160 and title tag at 60, Instagram captions at 2200, LinkedIn posts at 3000, Bluesky at 300, and Facebook posts at 63206.
Why does an emoji sometimes seem to count as two?: Some emoji and accented characters are stored as more than one code unit. The counter reports JavaScript string length, so a character built from a surrogate pair can add two to the total, which mirrors how several messaging platforms bill SMS length.
What is the letters-and-numbers-only count for?: It strips spaces, punctuation, and symbols to leave just alphanumeric characters. That is useful when you care about the visible content length rather than formatting, for example comparing two headlines without spacing differences skewing the result.

Good to know

SMS length is the most misunderstood limit. A message stays at 160 characters per segment only while it uses the standard GSM 7-bit alphabet. Add a single emoji or certain accented letters and the encoding switches to UCS-2, which drops the per-segment limit to 70 characters, so a short message can suddenly cost two segments. If you send transactional SMS, keep the text plain.

Platform limits change over time and can differ by client, region, or account tier, so treat the built-in numbers as a practical guide rather than a contract. When a field rejects text that looks within limit, the cause is usually invisible characters: a trailing newline, a non-breaking space, or a zero-width character pasted in from another app. Clear and retype the ending if a count looks wrong.