Character Counter

Free Character Counter

This free character counter tells you exactly how many characters, words, sentences and lines are in your text. Type or paste your text and the numbers update instantly. It also compares your text to the character limits of popular platforms so you can see at a glance whether it fits.

It is useful for tweets, Instagram captions, LinkedIn posts, text messages, SEO titles, meta descriptions and school or work assignments with a character limit.

How to Use This Calculator

1. Type or paste your text into the box.
2. Read the live counts for characters, words, sentences and lines, plus the count without spaces.
3. Check the Platform Character Limits bars to see how close you are to each limit.
4. Use Copy, Clear or Download when you are done.

How the Counts Work

• Characters = every letter, number, space, symbol and line break in the text.
• Words = groups of text separated by spaces or line breaks.
• Sentences = pieces of text separated by a period, question mark or exclamation mark.
• Read time assumes about 240 words per minute, and speak time assumes about 150 words per minute.

Example: the text "Hello, world!" has 13 characters with spaces, 12 without spaces, 2 words and 1 sentence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between characters with and without spaces?

Characters with spaces counts everything you typed, including spaces, punctuation and line breaks. Characters without spaces leaves out all spaces and line breaks. The tool shows both, so you can use whichever number your platform or assignment asks for.

What are the character limits for social media and SEO?

The tool tracks Twitter / X (280), Instagram captions (2,200), LinkedIn posts (3,000), SMS (160), meta descriptions (160) and page titles (60). Each limit has a progress bar that turns red when you go over.

Are the SEO limits hard rules?

No. About 150 to 160 characters for a meta description and about 50 to 60 characters for a title are common guidelines. Search engines cut text by display width, so the exact point where it is shortened can vary.

Why does an emoji count as more than one character?

Some emoji and special symbols are stored as two or more characters internally, so a counter based on text length can count them as 2. Platforms such as X may count them differently, so leave a small safety margin.

Does an SMS always allow 160 characters?

160 characters is the limit for one standard text message that uses the basic character set. Messages with emoji or some special characters allow fewer per message, and longer messages are split into several parts.

Is the text I type saved or sent anywhere?

No. The counting happens in your browser and your text is not stored by SnapTools.

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Note: Platform limits can change. Check the platform's own rules before publishing.