Character Counter
Character Counter
Count characters with and without spaces, plus words and lines.
Runs entirely in your browser
How to use this tool
- Fill in the inputs.
- Read the result.
- Copy or download as needed.
About the Character Counter
The Character Counter is a focused tool for anyone who needs to hit an exact character limit rather than just a word count — think social media posts, SMS messages, meta descriptions, headlines, or form fields with strict length restrictions. It shows characters with and without spaces, plus word and line counts, all updating instantly as you type.
Because many platforms enforce hard character limits (Twitter/X posts, SEO meta descriptions, SMS segments), knowing your exact character count before you hit publish or submit can save you from an error message or an awkwardly truncated message.
The character count with spaces is simply the total length of the text, counting every letter, number, punctuation mark, and space exactly as typed. The "without spaces" figure removes every space character before measuring length, which is useful when a platform's limit specifically excludes whitespace from its count (this is less common, but does happen on a few systems).
Word count uses the same whitespace-splitting logic as the Word Counter tool, and line count is calculated by counting how many line breaks are present in the text, giving you a quick way to see how many separate lines you have typed or pasted.
Common use cases
- Writing a social media post that needs to fit within a specific platform's character limit.
- Crafting an SEO meta description or title tag that search engines will display in full without truncation.
- Composing an SMS message and checking whether it fits within a single message segment.
- Filling out a form field online that enforces a maximum character count.
- Checking the exact length of a headline, tagline, or product name against a style guide requirement.
Tips and best practices
- Meta descriptions are typically most effective around 150–160 characters — check the current recommendation for the specific search engine or platform you are optimizing for.
- SMS messages are often limited to 160 characters per segment; going over that limit can split your message into multiple segments, which may affect cost or delivery formatting.
- When a platform's limit description is ambiguous about spaces, test with the "without spaces" figure as a conservative estimate.
- Line count can help you spot unwanted extra line breaks that crept in when pasting text from another source.
