A “150 words max” box on an application form, a meta description that gets cut off in search results, or a social post that has to fit a limit. When you’re writing, you often need to know exactly how long your text is.
This guide shows how to count characters, words, lines and bytes with the free Character & Word Counter, and explains why different places count text differently. Your text is never sent anywhere.
Every form seemed to count differently: some by characters, some by words, some in bytes. I wanted one place to see all of them at once.
There’s more than one way to count text
“Length” can mean different things depending on where the text is going:
- Characters with or without spaces: whether spaces and line breaks count. Forms and platforms differ
- Words: separated by spaces. Used for essays, articles and many application forms
- Lines and paragraphs: helpful for checking structure and layout
- Bytes: how much data the text takes. Matters when a database field or system limit is set in bytes
What this tool does
- Counts instantly as you type or paste, with no button to press
- Shows characters including spaces and characters without spaces
- Counts words, lines and paragraphs
- Shows the size in bytes (UTF-8)
- Copies all the counts in one click
- Counts inside your browser without sending your text to a server
How to use it
STEP 1. Open the tool
Open the Character & Word Counter. No sign-up is needed.
STEP 2. Enter your text
Type in the box, or paste text copied from another app. The counts update below as you go.
STEP 3. Check the count you need
The large number is characters including spaces. If your limit is defined differently, look at Characters (no spaces), Words or Bytes (UTF-8) instead.
STEP 4. Copy the results
Press Copy summary to copy every count at once. It’s handy for tracking progress on a draft.
I use it as a final check before pasting into a form. Forms don’t always count the way you’d expect, so it’s worth looking at both “with spaces” and “no spaces”.
When it comes in handy
- Applications and essays: make sure you’re within a word or character limit
- Blog and web writing: check article length and meta description length
- Social posts: confirm a post fits before you publish it
- System input: check that text fits a field limited to a number of bytes
FAQ
How do I check the word count in Word or Google Docs?
In Word, the count is shown in the status bar at the bottom, or under Review › Word Count. In Google Docs, use Tools › Word count (Ctrl+Shift+C, or Cmd+Shift+C on a Mac). This tool is handy when you’re not in a document, or when you need a byte count those apps don’t show.
How long can a post on X be?
X allows 280 characters for standard accounts. Some characters, such as Japanese, Chinese or Korean characters, count as two, and every link counts as a fixed length regardless of how long the URL is, so X’s own counter may differ slightly from a plain character count.
How long should a meta description or SMS be?
Search engines typically show about 150–160 characters of a meta description before cutting it off. A single SMS holds 160 characters of plain Latin text, but only 70 if it contains emoji or other special characters, and longer messages are split into several parts.
Things to keep in mind
- Other systems may count differently: some count a line break as two characters, so go by the destination’s own counter in the end
- Bytes are counted in UTF-8: accented letters take 2 bytes and most emoji take 4. Other encodings give different numbers
- Combined emoji may count as more than one: emoji made from several joined characters, such as family emoji, can count as several characters
- Cleaning up pasted text: text copied from a PDF often has stray line breaks and spaces. Tidy it with the Line Break & Whitespace Remover first for an accurate count
Summary
How text is counted depends on where it’s going. The Character & Word Counter shows characters, words, lines and bytes all at once, and your text never leaves your device.
Use it for a last check on your next application, article or post.
