Character Counter
Count characters with and without spaces in real time, plus words, sentences and paragraphs, against the limits for meta descriptions, X posts and bios.
A character counter reports the exact number of characters in your text, both with and without spaces, as you type. It is the number that matters wherever a hard limit applies - a 160-character meta description, a 280-character post, or a form field that truncates silently.
Runs entirely in your browser · no signup · nothing is uploaded · updated 2026-09-02
- Characters without spaces
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Speaking time
- 1 min
- Flesch reading ease
- -
How to use it
- 1.Paste or type your text into the box.
- 2.Read the character count with and without spaces, updating live.
- 3.Trim until you are inside the limit for wherever the text is going.
Character limits that are actually enforced
Google truncates by pixel width rather than character count, so the title figures below are a safe target, not a hard cut-off.
| Where | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | 60 | Truncates around 580 pixels on desktop |
| Meta description | 155 | Around 120 shows on mobile |
| X post | 280 | A link always counts as 23 |
| SMS segment | 160 | Drops to 70 if any character is non-GSM |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Cut at about 125 in the feed |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | See more appears at about 210 |
| YouTube title | 100 | Truncated near 70 in most surfaces |
| Open Graph title | 88 | Varies by platform |
| Email subject line | 60 | Around 35 on a phone |
Frequently asked questions
Do spaces count as characters?
In almost every limit that matters, yes. X, meta descriptions, SMS and most form validations count spaces. Some academic word limits do not, which is why both numbers are shown.
What are the common character limits?
280 for an X post, 150 to 160 for a meta description, 60 for a title tag, 160 for an SMS segment, 2,200 for an Instagram caption and 3,000 for a LinkedIn post.
How many characters is 500 words?
Roughly 2,500 to 3,000 including spaces, since the average English word is about five characters plus a space. It varies with vocabulary.
Does an emoji count as one character?
Rarely. Most emoji are two UTF-16 units, and ones with skin tone or family modifiers can be seven or more. This counter reports what JavaScript counts, which is what most web forms count.
How long should a meta description be?
Under 160 characters, ideally 120 to 155. Google truncates around 920 pixels rather than a fixed count, so shorter is safer on mobile.
Is my text stored anywhere?
No. Counting happens in JavaScript on this page, with no network request, so it also works offline once loaded.
What counts as a sentence?
A run of text ending in a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. Abbreviations with full stops will inflate the count slightly.
How do I count characters in Excel or Google Sheets?
Use LEN(A1) for the total, and LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","")) for the count without spaces.
The guide behind this tool
3 min readCharacter limits that actually matter in 2026
The real limits for title tags, meta descriptions, social posts and SMS - plus why Google measures pixels, not characters, and why emoji count as more than one.
3 min readReadability and SEO: what a Flesch score really tells you
How Flesch Reading Ease is calculated, what score to aim for, whether readability affects rankings, and the one edit that improves it fastest.
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