How characters are counted
Every letter, number, space, punctuation mark and line break counts as one character. Emoji and accented letters are counted as you see them, so "é" or "👍" is one character, even though they can take 2 to 4 bytes in UTF-8. The byte count is shown separately for database fields and APIs that limit bytes rather than characters.
Common character limits
- X (Twitter): 280 characters on a standard account
- Single SMS: 160 GSM characters (70 if the message contains emoji)
- Google search snippet: about 150–160 characters for a meta description and 50–60 for a title
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters
- UCAS personal statement: 4,000 characters including spaces
Limits are shown under the count so you can see at a glance how many characters you have left. For words, sentences and reading time, use the word counter.
Frequently asked questions
Do spaces count as characters?
Yes. Most limits (X, SMS, UCAS) include spaces. The count without spaces is shown too.
How many characters is a tweet?
280 for a standard account.
Does an emoji count as one character?
It counts as one visible character here, but it can use up to 4 bytes and may count as 2 on some platforms.
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