Character Counter
Instantly count characters and check if your text fits Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, SEO titles, and SMS limits.
Check Character Limits Online
Our Character Counter is an essential optimization tool tailored specifically for social media managers, SEO experts, and writers who need to adhere to strict character limit constraints. Ensure your messages, posts, and meta tags fit perfectly within the designated space.
It provides real-time progress bars for major platforms including Twitter (X), Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and SEO titles. By tracking characters with and without spaces, you can easily tweak your text to perfection without ever guessing if your carefully crafted caption or title will be cut off by the platform's constraints.
Like our standard Word Counter, this tool includes built-in auto-save functionality. Your text is continuously saved in your browser, enabling you to seamlessly switch between the Word Counter and Character Counter tools without losing a single keystroke.
Word Analyzer
Quick Answer
Why Character Count Matters
Character counting is critical whenever you are writing for a platform with strict limits. Getting it wrong means your text gets cut off, rejected, or penalized - and no amount of good writing makes up for a truncated headline.
Here are the limits you will hit most often. Twitter/X allows 280 characters per tweet. Instagram bios cap at 150 characters. Meta descriptions should land between 150 and 160 characters to display correctly in search results without being cut. SMS messages are capped at 160 characters per segment, and going over splits your message into two, which costs more and looks messy. TikTok bios allow only 80 characters. Email subject lines should stay under 60 characters to avoid being truncated in most inboxes.
This tool counts both characters with spaces and characters without spaces. That distinction matters for academic submissions - many universities and journals specify a character limit that excludes spaces, so using the wrong count can mean submitting something that is over the limit without realizing it.
All counts update instantly as you type, and nothing is sent to a server. Your text stays private.
How to Use the Character Counter
- 1Paste your textPaste or type your text into the input box at the top of the page. Any length works, from a single tweet to a long-form caption or article.
- 2Read your character counts in real timeThe tool immediately shows characters with spaces, characters without spaces, word count, and line count. Counts update as you type, so you do not need to click any button.
- 3Check platform limitsLive progress bars show how your text fits Twitter (280), Instagram (2,200), LinkedIn (3,000), TikTok (2,200), YouTube (5,000), SMS (160), and SEO titles (60). Green means safe, red means over limit.
- 4Copy or share your textClick the copy button to copy your text. Your text never leaves your device, and your work auto-saves to your browser's local storage.
Who Uses Our Character Counter?
📱 Social Media Managers
Pre-check posts against platform limits without leaving the browser. Avoid truncated tweets, cut-off Instagram captions, and squeezed LinkedIn headlines that hurt engagement.
🔍 SEO Specialists
Keep page titles under 60 characters and meta descriptions at 150-160 characters to avoid truncation in search results. Higher click-through rates start with a fully visible snippet.
📲 SMS Marketers
Stay inside the 160-character GSM limit per segment. Avoid the 70-character Unicode trap when emoji or accented letters force UCS-2 encoding and double your send cost.
📚 Students & Academics
Many universities and journals enforce character limits that exclude spaces. Submit abstracts, statements, and applications at exactly the right length without manual counting.
✍️ Copywriters & Marketers
Fit ad copy into Google Ads headlines (30 chars), descriptions (90 chars), email subject lines (under 60 chars), and push notifications (under 50 chars on most platforms).
👨💻 Developers
Validate user input limits, database varchar fields, slug lengths, and form constraints. Unicode-aware grapheme counting matches how production platforms actually count.
Character Limit Cheat Sheet
Quick reference for the character limits you will hit most often. All values verified against current platform documentation.
| Platform / Surface | Limit (characters) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X post | 280 | URLs count as 23 characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | First 125 chars show before "more" |
| Instagram bio | 150 | Plain text only |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | Truncated at ~210 chars in feed |
| LinkedIn headline | 220 | Visible in search results |
| TikTok caption | 2,200 | Hashtags count toward limit |
| TikTok bio | 80 | One link allowed |
| YouTube description | 5,000 | First 150 chars show in search |
| YouTube title | 100 | Truncated at ~70 in search |
| SEO page title | 60 | Google truncates ~580 pixels |
| Meta description | 150-160 | Mobile snippets shorter |
| SMS (GSM 7-bit) | 160 | Per segment, plain Latin only |
| SMS (Unicode / emoji) | 70 | UCS-2 encoding, per segment |
Need a deeper breakdown by platform? Read our guides on Instagram character limits, TikTok character limits, and LinkedIn character limits.
The standard Twitter (X) character limit is 280 characters per tweet. Our tool provides a real-time progress bar to ensure you stay within this limit.
Instagram allows up to 2,200 characters in a post caption, and up to 30 hashtags. Our Character Counter specifically tracks Instagram limits.
Yes, standard character counts include spaces. However, our character counter tool immediately displays both the total character count and the character count without spaces.
LinkedIn post text is limited to 3,000 characters. Headlines are capped at 220 characters, the About section at 2,600 characters, and a connection message at 300 characters. Our counter helps you stay within each LinkedIn surface.
TikTok captions allow up to 2,200 characters, the same as Instagram. TikTok bios are limited to 80 characters. Hashtags count toward the caption limit, so plan your tags accordingly.
YouTube video descriptions allow up to 5,000 characters. Channel descriptions are capped at 1,000 characters, video titles at 100 characters, and comments at 10,000 characters. Only the first 100-150 characters of a description appear in search snippets.
A single SMS segment is 160 characters using the GSM 7-bit alphabet. If you include emoji or non-Latin characters, the message switches to UCS-2 encoding and the limit drops to 70 characters per segment. Going over splits your message and increases cost.
Meta descriptions should be 150-160 characters to display fully in Google search results without truncation. Mobile snippets are sometimes shorter at 120 characters. Page titles should stay under 60 characters to avoid being cut off.
Our character counter is fully Unicode-aware. Emoji, accented letters, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and other non-Latin scripts each count as a single character (or one grapheme cluster) using Intl.Segmenter, matching how Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms count characters.
Yes. Once the page has loaded, the character counter runs entirely in your browser. No internet connection is required to count characters, and your text never leaves your device. Bookmark the page for offline access.
Character count is the total number of letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. Word count is the number of words separated by whitespace. A 100-word paragraph is typically 500-600 characters with spaces. Character count matters for social media and SMS, while word count matters for essays and blog posts.
Yes. Our tool displays both metrics at the same time: characters with spaces (the standard count used by Twitter, SMS, and most platforms) and characters without spaces (sometimes required by academic submissions and legal documents). No setting changes needed.
Related Guides
Twitter (X) Character Limit Guide 2026
Every character limit on Twitter/X explained - tweets, DMs, bios, and more.
Social MediaInstagram Character Limits 2026
Captions 2,200. Bio 150. Comments 2,200. Every Instagram limit in one place.
Social MediaTikTok Character Limits 2026
Captions 2,200. Bio 80. Hashtag rules and how they count toward your limit.
Social MediaLinkedIn Character Limits 2026
Posts 3,000. Headlines 220. About 2,600. Full LinkedIn limits cheat sheet.
Social MediaYouTube Character Limits 2026
Description 5,000. Title 100. Channel 1,000. All YouTube limits explained.
Social MediaFacebook Character Limits 2026
Posts 63,206. Bios 101. Comments 8,000. Every Facebook surface and its limit.
WritingHow Many Words in a Paragraph?
Learn the ideal paragraph length for different writing contexts.
SEOIdeal Blog Post Length for SEO
Data-backed analysis: 1,500-2,500 words ranks best. From 11.8M Google results.
Sources & References
- Twitter/X character limits verified against the official X Help Center (2025): 280 characters per post, 23-character URL shortening via t.co.
- Instagram caption and bio limits verified against the Instagram Help Center: 2,200 characters per caption, 150 characters per bio, 30 hashtag maximum.
- LinkedIn character limits verified against the LinkedIn Help Center: 3,000-character posts, 220-character headlines, 2,600-character About sections.
- TikTok limits verified against the TikTok Creator Portal: 2,200-character captions, 80-character bios.
- YouTube limits verified against Google Support documentation: 5,000-character descriptions, 100-character titles.
- SMS character limits follow the GSM 03.38 specification (7-bit alphabet, 160 chars) and the GSM 03.40 UCS-2 segment limit (70 chars) for Unicode content.
- Google search snippet truncation widths based on the SISTRIX 2024 SERP analysis: 580 pixels for desktop titles, 920 pixels for desktop descriptions.
Instagram Character Counter
Count Instagram caption characters and track all Instagram limits in real time.
Facebook Character Limit Checker
Check Facebook post, ad copy, and bio character limits in real time.
TikTok Character Counter
Count TikTok caption characters and track bio, comment, and live title limits.