How do I check if my tweet or caption fits the character limit?

Paste your text into Your text. The Platform limits panel shows progress bars against Tweet (X) 280, LinkedIn post 3000, Meta description 160, YouTube title 100, SMS message 160 and Instagram caption 2200, and flags any you exceed.

Why is my character count different from what X or Instagram shows?

This tool counts Unicode characters, and also shows Graphemes and Bytes (UTF-8). Platforms apply their own rules, and emoji, links and CJK characters may count as more than one there, as the limits note says.

How does it count emoji and non-English text?

Letters and digits are detected with Unicode rules, so Cyrillic, Arabic and CJK text counts correctly. The Graphemes stat counts a multi-part emoji such as a flag as one, while Characters and Bytes (UTF-8) count its underlying parts.

What else does it show besides characters and words?

It shows Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, Letters, Digits, Spaces, Newlines, Special, Unique chars, Avg word length, Reading time and Speaking time, plus top character and word frequencies. Selecting text also gives a selection count.

Is my text uploaded when I count it?

No. Counting uses JavaScript built-ins such as Intl.Segmenter and TextEncoder in your browser, with no external library, so the text is analysed on your device as you type.

Yes. Every tool is free to use, with no account and no credit card. The work runs on your device rather than on our servers, which is what keeps it free to run.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes. It runs in current mobile browsers on iOS and Android, with nothing to install.

🔢

Free Character Counter

Count characters, words, sentences, letters, digits, and special characters. Check against Twitter, Instagram, and other platform limits.

Runs in your browserNo sign-up, no pop-upsNo login requiredFree forever

Works offline once loaded

Your text

Characters86

Graphemes86

Bytes (UTF-8)86

Words17

Sentences2

Paragraphs2

Letters67

Digits0

Spaces15

Newlines2

Special2

Unique chars31

Avg word length3.9 ch

Reading time5 sec

Speaking time7 sec

Platform limits

𝕏 Tweet (X)86/280 ✓

💼 LinkedIn post86/3000 ✓

🌐 Meta description86/160 ✓

▶️ YouTube title86/100 ✓

💬 SMS message86/160 ✓

📷 Instagram caption86/2200 ✓

Platform counting rules vary — emoji, links and CJK characters may count as more than one character.

Common uses

Count Characters for Social Media PostsCheck character counts against Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platform limits before posting.
Count Characters for SEO Meta TagsCheck title tags and meta descriptions against search engine character limits for optimal display.
Count Characters for Academic WritingTrack character and word counts for essays, abstracts, application forms, and thesis submissions.
Count String Length for DevelopmentCheck string lengths, byte sizes, and Unicode character counts for database column sizing and validation.
Analyse Content Structure and StatisticsGet detailed text statistics — sentence length, paragraph count, and character frequency for any content.

How It Works

All counting runs in your browser using JavaScript's built-in Unicode APIs — specifically Intl.Segmenter for grapheme clusters and TextEncoder for byte length — with no server calls and no external libraries. The tool distinguishes between Unicode code points, user-perceived characters (so a flag emoji or a family emoji counts as one grapheme, not four), and raw UTF-8 bytes.

1
Unicode-aware parsing
As you type, the text is split into Unicode code points using the spread iterator ([...text]), which correctly handles characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane. Letters and digits are classified using Unicode property escapes (\p{L} and \p{N}) so Cyrillic, Arabic, CJK, and other scripts are counted correctly, not just ASCII.
2
Grapheme and byte counting
The browser's Intl.Segmenter API (with granularity: 'grapheme') counts user-perceived characters — a multi-codepoint emoji like a family or a flag registers as one. TextEncoder encodes the text to UTF-8 and reports the byte length, which matters for SMS and network limits where bytes, not characters, are the constraint.
3
Structural and frequency analysis
Words are detected by splitting on whitespace; sentences by counting ., !, and ? punctuation runs; paragraphs by double-newline boundaries. Unique character count is computed using a Set. Character and word frequency tables are built with a Map, then sorted by count to surface the top 10 most-used entries.
4
Platform limit comparison
Your character count is compared in real time against six hardcoded platform limits (Tweet/X at 280, Meta description at 160, SMS at 160, LinkedIn post at 3000, YouTube title at 100, Instagram caption at 2200). A progress bar and pass/fail indicator update instantly as you type, and reading time is estimated at 225 words per minute, speaking time at 140 wpm.