NoteFast / Character counter
Character counter
Characters with and without spaces, letters, digits and bytes – plus a live check against the limits you actually hit.
Character limits by platform
Limits are the publicly documented ones as of 2026 and may change. Title and meta description lengths are safe targets, since Google cuts by pixel width.
SMS length
GSM-7 encoding · 0 units · 0 messages
Plain Latin text fits 160 characters in one SMS (153 per part when split). A single emoji or accented character outside the GSM set switches the whole message to Unicode: 70 per SMS, 67 per part.
Characters, letters and bytes – which number do you need?
Characters (with spaces) is what almost every form, social platform and SEO tool means. Without spaces is used by some translation agencies and academic briefs. Letters is useful for word games and handwriting exercises. Bytes matter for databases and APIs: an accented “é” is one character but two UTF-8 bytes, and most emoji are four.
Need the count in words instead? The word counter shows both.
Questions people ask
Do spaces count as characters?
Usually, yes. Most limits – X (Twitter), SMS, meta descriptions, form fields – count every space and line break. This tool shows both totals: with spaces and without.
What is the difference between characters and letters?
Characters include everything: letters, digits, spaces, punctuation and emoji. The letter count only includes alphabetic letters, in any script.
Why do emoji count as two characters on some sites?
Many systems count UTF-16 code units, and most emoji take two of them (some take more when combined with skin tones or joiners). The counter here shows the visible-character count and the UTF-16 length separately so you can check both.
What is the X (Twitter) character limit?
Standard posts are limited to 280 characters, with every link counted as 23 characters. Paid accounts can post longer.
How long should a meta description be?
Google truncates by pixel width, not a fixed number. Around 150–160 characters is a safe target so the key message shows on most screens.