Count characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, reading time and more — instantly as you type.
Start typing to see your most used words.
This free character counter tool shows you eight different text metrics simultaneously — updating in real time as you type or paste. Whether you are writing a meta description, a tweet, a Google Ads headline, or a 3,000-word blog post, every number you need is visible at once without switching between tools.
Below the counters, live progress bars track your text against the six most commonly used platform character limits: meta description, title tag, Twitter, SMS, Google Ads headline, and Instagram caption. A word frequency panel shows your most-used words, helping you spot repetition and keyword density issues immediately.
Most character counters show two numbers. This tool shows eight. Here is what each metric means and when it matters in real writing and content work:
| Metric | What it counts | When you need it |
|---|---|---|
| Characters (with spaces) | Every character including spaces, tabs, and line breaks | Social media limits, SMS, meta descriptions — all count spaces |
| Characters (without spaces) | Letters, numbers, and punctuation — all whitespace removed | Academic writing minimums, content density analysis, typesetting |
| Words | Sequences of characters separated by whitespace | Blog post length targets, academic requirements, content planning |
| Sentences | Text segments ending in . ! or ? | Readability analysis — shorter sentences produce higher readability scores |
| Paragraphs | Text blocks separated by blank lines | Content structure, long-form writing checks, pacing analysis |
| Reading time | Word count divided by 238 words per minute | Blog post headers, content planning, estimating reader time commitment |
| Unique words | Distinct words regardless of repetition count | Vocabulary richness, detecting over-repeated terms and filler words |
| Lines | Line breaks in the text | Code files, scripts, structured documents, poetry |
Every major digital platform enforces different character limits for different content types. This is the most comprehensive reference for the limits you encounter most frequently in SEO, social media management, advertising, and email marketing.
Google does not enforce strict character limits — it measures pixel width rather than character count when deciding where to truncate. However, character count is still the most practical proxy because pixel width varies by font rendering and device. The limits below are widely used guidelines based on typical truncation behaviour.
| SEO Element | Guideline | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Page title tag (desktop) | 50–60 chars | Google renders approximately 600px of title width. Wide characters like W and M reduce effective count. |
| Page title tag (mobile) | ~50 chars | Mobile SERPs show slightly fewer characters than desktop. |
| Meta description (desktop) | 140–160 chars | Aim for 140-155 to have a safe margin across devices. Google rewrites descriptions it considers unhelpful. |
| Meta description (mobile) | ~120 chars | Mobile search results show shorter descriptions. Target 120 chars if mobile traffic is your priority. |
| URL slug | Under 75 chars | Shorter is better. Google displays approximately 75 characters of URL in search results before truncating. |
| Image alt text | 125 chars | Screen readers typically cut off at 125 characters. Keep alt text descriptive but concise. |
| Platform | Content type | Limit | Key notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X | Post (standard) | 280 | URLs always count as 23 chars. Images and video do not count. |
| Twitter / X | Post (X Premium) | 25,000 | Long-form posts for paid subscribers. |
| Twitter / X | Bio | 160 | Profile biography displayed under your name. |
| Caption (total) | 2,200 | Only first 125 chars visible in feed before "More" button. | |
| Bio | 150 | Profile description visible on your profile page. | |
| Post | 63,206 | Posts over 477 chars are collapsed with "See more" in feed. | |
| Page description | 255 | Shown in search results and the About section. | |
| Post | 3,000 | First 210 chars visible in feed before "See more" is shown. | |
| Headline | 220 | Shown under your name across all LinkedIn surfaces. | |
| About section | 2,600 | First 300 chars visible before "See more" on profile page. | |
| TikTok | Caption | 2,200 | Hashtags are included in the character count. |
| YouTube | Video title | 100 | Only first 60-70 chars visible in search results and feeds. |
| YouTube | Description | 5,000 | First 157 chars visible before "Show more" on mobile. |
| Pin description | 500 | Only first 50 chars visible in the main feed. |
| Platform / Format | Limit | Important notes |
|---|---|---|
| SMS (standard GSM-7) | 160 chars | Standard Latin alphabet. One segment = one SMS billing unit. |
| SMS (with emoji or Unicode) | 70 chars | Any Unicode character including emoji reduces limit to 70 per segment. |
| WhatsApp message | 65,536 chars | Virtually no practical limit for standard messages. |
| Google Ads headline | 30 chars | Per headline. Up to 15 headlines per Responsive Search Ad. |
| Google Ads description | 90 chars | Per description. Up to 4 descriptions per Responsive Search Ad. |
| Google Ads display URL path | 15 chars each | Two optional path fields appended after the domain. |
| Email subject line (optimal) | 40–60 chars | Most email clients show 60 chars on desktop, 30 chars on mobile preview. |
| Push notification title | ~50 chars | Varies by OS. Android shows ~50 chars, iOS shows ~40 in most apps. |
Your page title and meta description are the first two lines of text a potential visitor reads about your page in Google search results. A title tag over 60 characters gets truncated with an ellipsis, potentially cutting off your primary keyword or unique value proposition. A meta description over 160 characters is truncated at the end — often mid-sentence. The live limit bars in this tool turn amber at 85% and red at 100%, giving you a clear visual warning before truncation happens.
Research consistently shows that shorter social media posts outperform longer ones on most platforms — but the threshold varies. On Twitter, posts under 100 characters get higher engagement despite the 280-character limit. On LinkedIn, the content visible before the "See more" cutoff at 210 characters determines whether a reader clicks to expand or scrolls past. On Instagram, the first 125 characters of your caption are the only words most followers will read. This tool tracks all three simultaneously so you can write once and evaluate across platforms without switching tabs.
Sentence count and average sentence length are direct inputs into standard readability formulas including the Flesch-Kincaid readability score and Gunning Fog Index. Sentences averaging 15-20 words produce higher readability scores. Academic research suggests content written at a grade 7-8 reading level reaches the widest audience — even for technical topics — because it reduces cognitive load without dumbing down the information. Monitoring sentence count as you write helps keep average sentence length in the productive range without needing a separate readability analysis tool.
The most frequent words panel shows you which words appear most often in your text after filtering out common stop words (the, a, and, is, etc.). This serves two distinct purposes in content quality work:
If a filler word like "very", "really", "just", "actually", or "basically" appears in your top five most frequent words, your writing has a filler word problem. These words add character count without adding meaning and reduce the quality density of your content. The word frequency display makes this visible immediately — you do not need to re-read the text manually to find the pattern.
Keyword density — the percentage of your text that consists of your target keyword — has a practical range for SEO purposes. Below 0.5% and the keyword may not register clearly as the topic of the page. Above 2-3% and the text reads unnaturally and may trigger over-optimisation signals. If your target keyword appears in the top five most frequent words at a frequency of roughly 1-2% of total words, your density is in the healthy range. You can verify this precisely using our Keyword Density Checker.
The average adult reading speed for comprehension — not speed reading or skimming — is approximately 200-238 words per minute. This tool uses 238 words per minute, consistent with research published by Brysbaert (2019) on reading speed across languages. The formula is: reading time in minutes = word count divided by 238, rounded to the nearest half-minute.
Reading time estimates have become standard in blog post headers because they measurably reduce bounce rate. When a reader knows a post takes 4 minutes before clicking, they make an informed commitment. When they discover mid-way through that it will take 12 minutes, they leave. Medium, Substack, and most major publishing platforms display reading time automatically. If you publish on your own site, the word count and reading time from this tool let you add this element to your post headers manually.
The most common use case. Writing or reviewing meta titles and descriptions for every page of a website requires knowing precisely when you are within the safe zone and when you are approaching truncation. The live limit bars update with every keystroke, making the process of optimising 50 meta descriptions in a single session significantly faster than manually counting or switching to a browser extension.
Managing content across Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook simultaneously means tracking four different character limit systems that often contradict each other. A tweet that is perfect at 279 characters fails on LinkedIn if the important content falls after character 210. A caption that leads with a strong hook in the first 120 characters on Instagram may bury the call to action on LinkedIn where 300 characters are visible. This tool's simultaneous platform bars eliminate the need to check each platform separately.
Database schema design requires knowing maximum string lengths to set VARCHAR column widths correctly. Form field validation requires knowing the character limits your UI enforces. API payload size estimation requires character counts for JSON string fields. The character counter's live output provides these numbers instantly without switching to a code editor or writing a quick script.
University essay submissions frequently specify both minimum and maximum word count requirements. Conference abstracts have character or word limits. The live word counter removes the need to run a word count check in a word processor every few minutes while writing — the number is always visible in the tool.
Subject line length directly affects email open rate. The optimal subject line length for most audiences is 41-50 characters — long enough to convey the message, short enough to display fully on mobile. Preview text (the line shown below the subject in most email clients) has a sweet spot of 85-100 characters. Both are trackable in real time using this tool alongside your regular email draft workflow.