No. 02 — Characters
Character Counter
Count characters, words, and sentences as you type, and check your text against the limits that matter — X (280), Instagram captions (2,200), meta descriptions (160), and SMS (160, or 70 with Unicode).
0
Characters
0
No Spaces
0
Words
0
Sentences
What counts as a character?
A character is any single unit of text — a letter, number, punctuation mark, symbol, space, or emoji. This counter reports the total with spaces by default, because social platforms, search engines, and SMS gateways all count spaces. Word processors such as Microsoft Word usually report characters without spaces, so both figures are shown above.
Character limits by platform (2026)
| Platform | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| X / Twitter post | 280 | 4,000 for X Premium accounts |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Only ~125 show before “more” |
| Meta description | ≈160 | ~120 on mobile |
| Title tag | ≈60 | Pixel-limited in practice |
| SMS (GSM-7) | 160 | 70 once any Unicode character is used |
Frequently asked questions
- How many characters are in a tweet?
- A standard X (Twitter) post allows 280 characters. X Premium accounts can post up to 4,000 characters.
- What is the character limit for a meta description?
- Google shows roughly 155–160 characters of a meta description on desktop and about 120 characters on mobile. Keep the key message within the first 120 characters.
- How many characters can an SMS contain?
- A single SMS holds 160 characters using GSM-7 encoding. Adding one emoji, curly quote, or accented letter switches the message to Unicode (UCS-2) and drops the limit to 70 characters per segment.
- Does the character count include spaces?
- Yes. The main count includes spaces, because social platforms and SMS count spaces as characters. A separate "characters without spaces" figure is shown for word-processor comparisons.
Related tools
- Word Counter — full text analysis with reading time and readability.
- Words to Pages Converter — turn a word count into a page estimate.