Social Media Character Counter
Paste or type your text once and see live character counts against the limits of every major platform, including SMS segment counting.
0 characters · 0 words
0 / 280
0 / 100
0 / 2,200
0 / 2,200
0 / 3,000
0 / 5,000
0 / 63,206
0 / 160 · GSM-7 encoding (160 per segment) · 0 segments
Limits reflect standard free accounts and change over time. X counts URLs as 23 characters and most emoji as 2, so leave a small buffer there.
How it works
- Type or paste your post, caption, title, or message into the text box.
- Watch each platform row update live — the bar fills as you approach the limit and turns red the moment you go over.
- Trim your text until every platform you care about shows characters remaining, then copy it straight into the app.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the current character limits for each social platform?
- The commonly enforced limits are 280 characters for a standard X (Twitter) post, 2,200 for Instagram and TikTok captions, 100 for a YouTube title and 5,000 for a YouTube description, 63,206 for a Facebook post, and 3,000 for a LinkedIn post. Platforms adjust these occasionally — X, for example, allows longer posts for premium subscribers — so treat the numbers as the standard free-account limits.
- How does the tool count characters — do emoji and special symbols count as one?
- The counter uses Unicode code points, so most emoji and accented letters count as one character, which matches how Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook count. X is stricter: it counts most emoji as two characters and every URL as exactly 23, so a post heavy on emoji or links may be shorter on X than this counter shows. When you are close to the X limit, leave a small buffer.
- How does SMS segment counting work and why does the limit change?
- A single SMS holds 160 characters when the text uses only the basic GSM-7 alphabet. If it contains any character outside that alphabet — most emoji, curly quotes, or non-Latin scripts — the whole message switches to Unicode encoding and each segment holds only 70 characters. Longer messages are split into segments of 153 (GSM-7) or 67 (Unicode) characters each, and carriers usually bill per segment.
- Is my text uploaded or stored anywhere?
- No. Counting happens entirely in JavaScript running in your browser, so nothing you type is sent to a server, logged, or saved. You can even load the page, disconnect from the internet, and keep using the counter — it works fully offline.
- Do line breaks and spaces count toward the limits?
- Yes, every platform counts spaces and line breaks as characters, and this tool does the same. In SMS, a line break is one character in GSM-7 encoding. Hashtags and mentions also count in full on every platform, so a caption packed with hashtags uses up its 2,200-character Instagram budget just like regular text.
About this tool
This social media character counter checks one piece of text against the posting limits of all major platforms at once: X (Twitter) posts at 280 characters, Instagram and TikTok captions at 2,200, YouTube titles at 100 and descriptions at 5,000, Facebook posts at 63,206, LinkedIn posts at 3,000, and SMS with proper segment counting. Instead of pasting your draft into seven different validators, you type it once and every row updates live, showing a progress bar and the exact number of characters remaining — or how far over you are.
Everything runs client-side in your browser. The counter measures Unicode code points, which is how most platforms count, so an emoji or an accented letter registers as a single character rather than the two or four bytes it occupies internally. The SMS row goes further: it inspects each character against the GSM-7 alphabet to decide whether your message fits 160 characters per segment or drops to 70-character Unicode segments, then reports how many segments a carrier would actually send. Because no text ever leaves your device, drafts of unreleased announcements or private messages stay private.
The practical use cases are everyday ones. Social media managers drafting one announcement for cross-posting can see immediately which platforms need a shorter cut. YouTube creators can confirm a title fits the 100-character limit before it gets truncated in search results. Anyone sending campaign or notification texts can watch the segment counter, since a single stray emoji doubles the cost of an SMS blast by halving segment capacity.
A few tips: platform limits change over time and premium tiers often raise them, so the numbers here reflect the standard free-account limits as commonly documented. On X specifically, links always count as 23 characters and most emoji count as two, so keep a margin of a few characters when a post sits right at 280. And remember that hitting the limit is not the goal — shorter posts are usually read more.