Character Counter
Check your text against the character limits of X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and SMS, with a live progress bar that turns red when you go over.
Runs locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
What is Character Counter?
Character Counter is a free online tool that checks your text against the character limits of the platforms where limits actually bite. Every social network caps post length, and the caps are wildly different: a post on X allows only 280 characters, an Instagram caption allows 2,200, a LinkedIn post allows 3,000, a Facebook post allows 63,206, and a single SMS message holds just 160 characters. Writing past a limit usually means the platform trims your text, rejects the post, or splits an SMS into several paid segments, so knowing where you stand before you publish saves editing after the fact.
Pick a platform from the dropdown and type or paste your text. The counter updates live, the progress bar fills toward the limit, and the moment you cross it the bar switches to its over-limit red state and the status line tells you exactly how many characters you are over by. Characters are counted by unicode code point, so one emoji counts as one character here; note that some platforms count certain emoji or special characters differently, and SMS messages with non-GSM characters may be split sooner, so treat the SMS figure as a guide for plain text.
How to use Character Counter
First, choose the platform you are writing for. Then type or paste your draft into the box. The three figures below show characters used, the platform limit, and characters remaining, which goes negative once you are over. If the bar is red, trim the text by the number shown in the status line. Switch platforms at any time to check the same draft against another limit without retyping. Load example fills in a short sample post, and Clear empties the box.
Frequently asked questions
What is the X character limit? A standard post on X (formerly Twitter) allows 280 characters. Longer posts are possible only with a paid subscription, so 280 is the limit most people need to respect.
Why is SMS limited to 160 characters? A single SMS segment carries 160 characters in the GSM alphabet. Longer messages are split into multiple segments, each with its own overhead, so a 161-character plain message arrives as two segments and may be billed as two messages.
Do links and hashtags count? Yes, on most platforms every character you type counts, including the full text of links and hashtags. X shortens displayed links but still counts them toward the limit, so paste the real text here rather than guessing.
Do emoji count as one character? In this tool, yes: characters are counted by unicode code point. Some platforms use a different internal count for complex emoji, so if a post is right on the edge, leave a small margin.