Text ToolsNewRuns in your browser
Character Counter
Count characters against a limit, with live feedback on what is left.
About Character Counter
Meta descriptions, SMS messages, bios, ad headlines and form fields all come with hard character limits. Set your limit, paste your text, and watch the remaining count change as you edit — with presets for the limits people hit most often and a warning before you go over. Counts are shown with and without spaces, alongside words, sentences and paragraphs, because different platforms measure differently — Twitter counts characters, most CMS fields count everything including whitespace.
How to use Character Counter
- 01
Set a limit
Choose a preset such as "Meta description (160)" or type your own number. Leave it blank to just count.
- 02
Type or paste your text
The counter and progress bar update on every keystroke.
- 03
Trim to fit
The remaining count turns amber as you approach the limit and red once you pass it.
Features
- Live character count with and without spaces
- Custom limit with a remaining-characters readout
- Presets for SEO titles, meta descriptions, SMS and social posts
- Visual progress bar that warns before you exceed the limit
- Word and line counts alongside
- Copy and clear in one click
Frequently asked questions
Everything people ask about the Character Counter.
Almost always, yes — SMS, social networks and search engines all count spaces. The tool shows both figures so you can check either way.
Around 155–160 characters. Google truncates by pixel width rather than an exact count, so keeping the important information in the first 120 characters is the safer approach.
Emoji are counted the way JavaScript sees them, which is how most web forms count too. Note that many emoji are two units, and flags or skin-tone variants can be more — which is exactly why an SMS with emoji hits its limit sooner than expected.
A plain SMS holds 160 characters. Adding any character outside the basic GSM set — including most emoji and curly quotes — switches the message to a different encoding with a 70-character limit.
Yes, completely. There is no account to create, no trial that expires, no watermark on the output and no feature held back behind a paywall. The site is supported by unobtrusive advertising, not by charging you.
No. Character Counter runs entirely inside your browser, so your input never leaves your device. You can confirm this by opening your browser's network tab — there is no upload request.
Yes. Because processing happens locally, there is no copy of your data on any server to leak, subpoena or lose. Nothing is logged and nothing is stored.
Yes. The interface is built mobile-first, with touch-friendly controls and layouts that adapt to small screens. Everything that works on a desktop works on a phone.
Once the page has loaded, yes. All processing is local, so you can carry on working if your connection drops.
Any current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera, on desktop and mobile. If something behaves oddly, updating your browser resolves it in almost every case.
Yes. Whatever you produce here is yours — use it in client work, products, packaging or publications. There is no watermark, no licence to accept and no attribution required.
No. There is nothing to keep: your data is never transmitted, and it is cleared from memory as soon as you close or reload the page.
Related tools
Other utilities people use alongside this one.
Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences and paragraphs with live reading time.
Text ToolsNew
URL Encoder & Decoder
Percent-encode text for URLs, or decode an encoded URL back to plain text.
Developer ToolsNew
Base64 Encoder & Decoder
Encode text and files to Base64, or decode Base64 back to the original.
Developer ToolsNew
JSON Formatter
Beautify, minify and validate JSON with precise error messages.
Developer ToolsNew
Age Calculator
Work out an exact age in years, months, days — down to seconds.
CalculatorsNew
Image Compressor
Shrink JPG, PNG and WebP images without a visible drop in quality.
Image Tools
Image Cropper
Crop images freely or to a fixed aspect ratio for social platforms.
Image Tools
Image Resizer
Resize images to exact pixel dimensions or by percentage.
Image Tools