Character Counter

What Is the Character Counter?

The Character Counter shows you two numbers at once: the total character count including spaces, and the count with all spaces stripped out. It updates automatically as you type or paste, so there is no button to click and no waiting. It is useful for writers hitting a character limit on social media, developers checking string length, or anyone who needs to know exactly how long a piece of text is depending on whether spaces count toward the limit or not.

The reason it shows both numbers is that platforms and systems treat spaces differently. Some count them, some do not. Having both on screen at the same time saves you the bother of calculating one from the other.

How to Use This Tool

1. Paste or type your text into the input box above.
2. The character counts update automatically as you type. No button needed. Watch the "With Space" and "Without Space" displays change in real time.
3. Both counts are always visible at the same time, so you can check whichever one applies to your use case.
4. To use your text elsewhere, select it in the box and copy manually, or use the Copy button if available.

When Would You Use This?

• Checking character count before posting on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, or any platform with a hard character limit where every character, space included, gets counted against you.
• Verifying the length of a text string before passing it to a database field, API parameter, or form input that has a maximum character constraint.
• Checking bio or meta description length for SEO, where the without-spaces count sometimes gives a better approximation of how wide the text will render in pixels.

Also comes up when writing SMS messages, where character limits affect whether your message sends as one part or splits into two. That split can matter more than people expect.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I count characters in a text?

Paste your text into the input box above. The counter updates instantly and shows you both the with-space and without-space character counts. No clicking required.

What is the difference between characters with spaces and without spaces?

Characters with spaces counts every single character in your text, including all the spaces between words. Characters without spaces removes all space characters first and then counts what remains. The difference between the two numbers tells you how many spaces are in your text. Some platforms count spaces toward their limit, others do not, which is why having both numbers visible at once is useful.

Does Twitter count spaces as characters?

Yes. Twitter counts spaces as characters, so the "With Space" number is the one that matters when you are checking whether a tweet fits within the 280-character limit.

How many characters is 100 words?

It varies depending on the words, but as a rough average, 100 words tends to come out somewhere around 500 to 600 characters including spaces. Shorter words bring that number down, longer words push it up. Paste your actual text into the counter for an exact figure rather than estimating.

How do I count characters in Excel?

In Excel, use the LEN function. For example, =LEN(A1) returns the character count including spaces for whatever is in cell A1. To count without spaces, combine it with SUBSTITUTE: =LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","")). If you just need a quick count outside of a spreadsheet, pasting into this tool is faster.

How do I count characters in Word?

Go to Review, then Word Count, and a dialog will show you characters with and without spaces. But Word requires a few clicks to get there, and the count does not update live. For quick checks while writing or editing text outside of Word, this tool is more immediate.

What counts as a character?

Every single thing you can type: letters, numbers, punctuation marks, symbols, and spaces. Even a tab or a line break counts as a character. Emojis are a bit of a special case since some count as one character and some count as two, depending on the platform and how it handles Unicode.

How many characters can an SMS text message have?

A standard SMS is 160 characters. If your message goes over that, it typically gets split into multiple segments and billed accordingly by carriers, though it usually appears as one message on the recipient's screen. Messages with special characters or emojis sometimes have a lower per-segment limit of around 70 characters.

Is there a character limit for meta descriptions?

Google does not have a strict character limit for meta descriptions, but roughly 155 to 160 characters is the range where descriptions tend to display fully in search results without being cut off. Going over that does not cause a penalty, it just means part of the description might get truncated with an ellipsis.