Paste your text into a character counter to see the total with and without spaces at once. This is what you need for limits on social posts, SMS messages, meta descriptions and form fields, and the 99digest Character Counter checks your text against common platform limits.
Follow along with the free Character Counter, which runs in your browser, or browse more tools in this category.
How to use the Character Counter
- Open the Character Counter and paste your text.
- Read the character count including spaces and the count excluding spaces.
- Compare the total against the limit for your platform, such as a post, text message or meta description.
- Trim wording until you are under the limit, keeping an eye on the live count.
Worked example
The text “Hello, world!” has 13 characters including the space and 12 without it. If your limit counts spaces, the first number is the one that matters.
Tips and common mistakes
- Check whether the platform counts spaces, line breaks and emoji, because rules vary and an emoji can count as more than one character.
- Leave a small buffer under hard limits, especially for SMS where special characters can change how a message is split.
- Search snippets are cut by pixel width, not just characters, so keep titles and descriptions comfortably short.
Frequently asked questions
Are spaces counted as characters?
Yes in the main total. The counter also shows the number without spaces so you can use whichever your limit requires.
Do emoji count as one character?
Visually yes, but some platforms count them as two or more. Always check the platform’s own rule.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. Everything is processed locally in your browser.