Character Counter — Free Online Tool
Count characters instantly with and without spaces. Check all major platform limits live as you type. 100% private — your text never leaves your browser.
🔒 100% Private — Runs in your browser🔒 Files are read locally — never uploaded to any server
How to Use This Character Counter
Type or paste your text into the editor above. The character count, word count, and all platform limits update instantly on every keystroke — no button to click. Here is what each stat means and how to use them:
- Characters (with spaces): The total number of characters including every space, tab, and newline. This is what most platforms use as their limit.
- Characters without spaces: Removes all whitespace before counting. Useful when you need to know the density of actual content in your text.
- Platform Limits Checker: All 10 platform cards update live. Green means your text fits. Red means you have gone over. Use this to ensure you stay within limits before copying and pasting into any platform.
- File upload: Click Upload to load a
.txtor.docxfile from your device. The text loads instantly and all counts update. - Export: Copy to clipboard, download as
.txtor.md, or print a clean version of your text.
Your draft is automatically saved every second to your browser's localStorage. If you close the tab and reopen it, your text will be restored. No account needed — your text stays on your device.
Who Needs a Character Counter
Character counting is needed any time you write content for a specific medium with length restrictions:
- Social media managers need to stay within Twitter's 280 characters, Instagram bio's 150 characters, and LinkedIn's 3000 character post limit simultaneously.
- SEO professionals must keep meta descriptions between 120 and 155 characters and page titles under 60 characters to avoid truncation in Google search results.
- Marketers writing SMS campaigns must stay within 160 characters per message to avoid being split into multiple SMS messages and doubling costs.
- Email marketers count subject line characters to optimise mobile preview display.
- Students and exam candidates in exams that set character limits instead of word limits.
- Developers checking field length requirements before saving content to a database.
Understanding Platform Character Limits
Every platform has its own limit based on its purpose and technical design. Twitter chose 280 characters to force clarity and brevity — its original 140-character limit was set to fit in an SMS. Instagram allows 2200 characters for captions to support storytelling and long-form content, but only shows the first 125 characters in the feed before truncating with "more". Meta descriptions are capped at around 155 characters by Google's display algorithm — longer descriptions are simply cut off in search results. SMS messages are technically limited to 160 characters by the GSM protocol, though most modern phones silently combine multi-part messages. Knowing these limits and checking them before posting saves editing time and prevents embarrassing truncation.