Character Counter
Count characters with Twitter and SMS limits shown in real time.
0 characters without spaces
This tool is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional financial, medical, legal, or engineering advice. See Terms of Service.
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Type or paste your text into the box above. The character count updates live as you type. Here is what each metric means:
- With spaces: The total number of characters including spaces and line breaks. This is the number most social platforms use.
- Without spaces: Only letters, numbers, and punctuation. Useful for measuring actual content density.
- Twitter remaining: Shows how many characters you have left before hitting the 280-character limit. Turns orange below 20, red if over.
- SMS count: Standard SMS messages allow 160 characters. If your text exceeds that, it splits into multiple segments of 153 characters each (due to the concatenation header).
About the Character Counter
Twitter uses its own counting method for URLs (always 23 characters regardless of actual length) and emojis (2 characters each). This tool counts raw characters, so your Twitter remaining count may differ slightly if you are using URLs or emojis in your tweet. For plain text, the count matches Twitter exactly. SMS character limits depend on the encoding: standard GSM-7 allows 160 characters per message. If you use characters outside the GSM-7 set (such as emoji or non-Latin letters), messages switch to Unicode encoding and the limit drops to 70 characters per segment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many characters does Twitter allow?
Twitter allows 280 characters per tweet for most accounts. URLs count as 23 characters regardless of their actual length. Emojis count as 2 characters each. For plain text without URLs or emoji, this tool's count will match Twitter's exactly.
How many characters are in an SMS?
A single SMS can hold 160 characters using standard GSM-7 encoding. If your message is longer, it splits into multiple parts. Each subsequent part holds 153 characters because 7 characters are reserved for the concatenation header. If you use emoji or special characters, the limit per segment drops to 70 characters (Unicode encoding).
Does a space count as a character?
Yes, a space is a character on most platforms including Twitter, SMS, and word processors. A tab counts as one character. A line break (newline) also counts as one character. The "without spaces" count strips all whitespace so you can see only the visible content characters.
How is this different from a word counter?
A word counter splits text on spaces and counts the pieces. A character counter counts each individual character, including spaces and punctuation. Character counting is more relevant for social media posts, SMS, and any platform with a character-based limit. Word counting is more relevant for academic writing, articles, and content where the volume of ideas matters more than character count.