How do I check if my text fits a character limit?
Paste your text into FixDoks's Character Counter to see character counts with and without spaces, plus words, lines and bytes, updated instantly. Platform cards compare your total against limits for X, Instagram, YouTube, SMS, SEO titles and meta descriptions, turning green when you have room left and red once you go over.
Character Counter at a glance
| Input | Pasted text |
|---|---|
| Output | Character, word, line and byte counts, plus platform limit checks |
| Processing | In your browser; your files are not uploaded |
| Price | Free |
| Works on | Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox on Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone |
How to use Character Counter
- Type or paste your text into the box.
- Read the character count with and without spaces, plus words, lines and bytes.
- Check the platform cards: green shows how many characters are left, red shows how far over you are.
How do I count characters for any platform?
Social networks, SMS and search engines all cut text at a fixed number of characters. This counter shows your total as you type and compares it against the most common limits at once, so you can write one caption and see straight away where it fits.
Platform limits used
| Where | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 | Standard accounts. Links count as 23 characters on X whatever their length, and some scripts such as Chinese count double, so the X app may show a slightly different number. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Only the first line or two show before "more", so put the hook first. |
| Instagram bio | 150 | |
| Pinterest pin description | 500 | |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | |
| YouTube title / description | 100 / 5,000 | |
| SEO title tag | about 60 | Google cuts titles by pixel width, not a hard character count. |
| Meta description | about 160 | Also cut by width. 150 to 160 characters is a safe target. |
| SMS | 160 | For plain English text. Messages with Hindi, emoji or other Unicode characters drop to 70 characters per SMS part. |
Platforms change their limits from time to time, so if a post is right at the edge, check in the app itself before publishing.
Characters, bytes and emoji
A character is what you see on screen. An emoji like 👍🏽 or a Hindi conjunct like "क्ष" is built from several code points, but this tool counts it as one character, the way a reader would. The Bytes (UTF-8) figure shows how much storage the text uses. It matters for databases and some APIs that limit by bytes: English letters take 1 byte each, Hindi letters 3 bytes, and most emoji 4 bytes or more.
With or without spaces?
Social platforms count spaces. Some translation agencies and school assignments ask for characters without spaces, so both numbers are shown.
Writing within a tight limit
For a meta description, lead with what the page offers and a reason to click, and keep brand names short. For an X post, cut words like "really", "very" and "just", and use numerals (5 instead of five). For SMS, avoid emoji and smart quotes if you want to stay in the 160 character format, because a single Unicode character switches the whole message to the shorter 70 character parts.
Why counts differ between apps
Different apps count the same text in slightly different ways. Some count an emoji with a skin tone as two or four characters because they count code units, not what you see. Some count a Windows line break as two characters. If a form keeps rejecting text that this tool says fits, remove emoji and extra line breaks first, then paste again.