About this character counter
Use this counter when a field, a post, or a message has a character limit: a meta description, a bio, an SMS, or a form that stops at 255 characters. It counts characters the way you see them on screen, so an emoji or an accented letter counts once. The breakdown shows how many of those characters are letters, digits, punctuation, symbols, spaces, line breaks, or Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters, and the byte count shows how much space the text takes when it is stored as UTF-8.
How to use this counter
- Add your text. Type, paste, or press an example. An example only fills the box; it does not count yet.
- Press Count characters. The totals and the character type table appear below the button.
- Check the numbers you need. Use Characters for most limits, Without spaces when spaces do not count, and UTF-8 bytes for database or file size limits.
- Copy or count again. Press Copy stats to paste the totals elsewhere, or edit the text and press Count characters again.
Frequently asked questions
Does the total include spaces and line breaks?
Yes. Characters counts every space, tab, and line break. Without spaces removes all three, which matches limits that only count visible characters.
How are emoji counted?
Each emoji you see counts as one character, even when it is built from several code points, such as 👍🏽 with a skin tone or a family emoji. Some platforms, such as X, count certain emoji as two, so check tight limits there.
What counts as a CJK character?
Chinese characters, Japanese hiragana and katakana, and Korean hangul. They are counted in their own row and are not included in Letters.
What is the difference between punctuation and symbols?
Punctuation covers marks such as . , ! ? ; : - — ( ) and quotation marks. Symbols covers everything else that is not a letter or digit, such as $ € % + = # @ and emoji.
Why is the UTF-8 byte count higher than the character count?
UTF-8 stores plain English letters in one byte each, but accented letters take two bytes, most CJK characters take three, and emoji take four or more. Byte limits in databases and APIs are measured this way.
Is a Windows line break counted as one or two characters?
One. A line break from Windows (CR + LF) and one from macOS or Linux (LF) both count as a single line break, so the result does not depend on where the text came from.