Emoji count as one character
“Hi 👋🏽” is 4 characters, even though the emoji is stored as several code units behind the scenes.
Character Counter
Count characters against limits for posts, meta tags and SMS, with remaining characters, bytes and SMS parts.
Characters
Characters (with spaces)
0/ 280
- Without spaces
- 0
- Words
- 0
- Lines
- 0
- Size (UTF-8)
- 0bytes
- SMS
- 0 messages
280 characters left
Runs in your browser — nothing you enter is sent to a server.
How the Character Counter works
Type or paste text and choose a limit — an X post, an SEO title or meta description, an Instagram caption, a LinkedIn post, or your own number. The counter shows how many characters you've used and how many are left, and turns red when you go over.
It also shows the size in bytes and how many SMS messages the text would need. Everything is counted in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Examples
SMS with an emoji
Plain text fits 160 characters in one SMS. A single emoji switches the whole message to Unicode, which fits only 70.
Frequently asked questions
Do spaces count as characters?
Usually yes — social platforms and SMS count spaces and line breaks. The counter shows both totals, with and without spaces.
How many characters fit in one SMS?
160 characters using the standard GSM alphabet, or 70 if the message contains emoji or letters outside that alphabet (such as Sinhala or Chinese). Longer messages are split into parts of 153 or 67 characters. A few symbols like € and [ ] take two characters each.
How long should a title tag and meta description be?
Aim for about 50–60 characters for titles and 150–160 for descriptions. Search engines actually cut them by pixel width, so wide letters use up the space faster — treat the numbers as a guide.
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