Character Counter
Count characters, words, sentences, and paragraphs in real-time.
Includes guides for SEO meta tags and social media limits. 100% Free — No registration required.
Details
Platform Limits
Common Use Cases
Why character counting matters in digital content
SEO Optimization
Ensure title tags (60 chars) and meta descriptions (160 chars) fit Google's display limits for maximum visibility.
Social Media
Stay within Twitter (280), Instagram bio (150), and LinkedIn post limits. Every character counts!
Translation Quotes
Translators often charge by word or character. Get accurate counts to estimate translation costs.
Academic Writing
Meet essay word count requirements. Many assignments specify 500, 1000, or 2500 word limits.
Platform Character Limits
| Platform | Content Type | Character Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Title Tag (SEO) | 50-60 | |
| Meta Description | 155-160 | |
| Twitter/X | Tweet | 280 |
| Bio | 150 | |
| Caption | 2,200 | |
| Post | 3,000 | |
| YouTube | Title | 100 |
| YouTube | Description | 5,000 |
Why Character Count Matters
In digital marketing, content creation, and programming, character limits are everywhere. Staying within these boundaries ensures your message is fully visible and effective.
SEO Impact
Search engines like Google display only a portion of your title and description in results. If your title exceeds ~60 characters, it gets truncated with "..." — potentially cutting off important keywords or your call-to-action.
Reading Time Estimation
The average adult reads 200-250 words per minute. Knowing your word count helps estimate reading time — useful for blog posts, documentation, and content planning. A 1500-word article takes approximately 6-7 minutes to read.
Counting in Code
How to get string length in various programming languages
const text = "Hello World";
// Characters (including spaces)
console.log(text.length); // 11
// Characters without spaces
console.log(text.replace(/\s/g, '').length); // 10
// Words (split on whitespace)
const words = text.trim().split(/\s+/);
console.log(words.length); // 2
// Sentences (split on . ! ?)
const sentences = text.split(/[.!?]+/).filter(Boolean);
console.log(sentences.length);text = "Hello World"
# Characters (including spaces)
print(len(text)) # 11
# Characters without spaces
print(len(text.replace(" ", ""))) # 10
# Words
print(len(text.split())) # 2
# Sentences
import re
sentences = re.split(r'[.!?]+', text)
print(len([s for s in sentences if s.strip()]))$text = "Hello World";
// Characters (bytes)
echo strlen($text); // 11
// Characters (UTF-8 safe)
echo mb_strlen($text, 'UTF-8'); // 11
// Characters without spaces
echo strlen(str_replace(' ', '', $text)); // 10
// Words
echo str_word_count($text); // 2-- MySQL (bytes)
SELECT LENGTH('Hello World'); -- 11
-- MySQL (characters, UTF-8)
SELECT CHAR_LENGTH('Hello World'); -- 11
-- PostgreSQL
SELECT LENGTH('Hello World'); -- 11
-- SQL Server
SELECT LEN('Hello World'); -- 11
-- Without spaces
SELECT LENGTH(REPLACE('Hello World', ' ', '')); -- 10Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between characters with and without spaces?
Characters with spaces count every character including whitespace. Characters without spaces exclude all space characters. Translation services often charge by characters without spaces.
What is the ideal SEO title length?
Google typically displays 50-60 characters of a title tag. Aim for under 60 characters to ensure your full title is visible. Longer titles get truncated with an ellipsis (...).
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time is based on average reading speed of 200-250 words per minute for adults. A 1000-word article takes approximately 4-5 minutes to read at average pace.
What is the Twitter/X character limit?
Twitter/X allows 280 characters for regular posts. Twitter Blue subscribers can post up to 25,000 characters. URLs count as 23 characters regardless of actual length.
Do emojis count as one character?
It depends! Some emojis are 1 character, but many modern emojis (especially those with skin tones or combined emojis) can be 2-7 characters internally. Twitter treats most emojis as 2 characters.
How do hyphenated words count?
It varies by tool. Some count "well-known" as one word, others as two. This tool counts hyphenated words as single words. For precise academic counts, check your institution's guidelines.