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Count Characters, Words & Lines in Your Text Count characters with and without spaces, plus word, line, and paragraph counts.

Character Counter illustration
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Character Counter

Count characters with and without spaces, plus word, line, and paragraph counts.

1

Enter Your Text

Type or paste the text you want to analyze into the input box.

2

View Character Stats

Instantly see characters with spaces, characters without spaces, and other text statistics.

3

Copy Your Character Counts

Use the copy button to save the character and word statistics.

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What Is Character Counter?

A character counter provides precise measurements of text length by counting individual characters, both with and without spaces. This tool goes beyond simple word counting to give you the exact character-level statistics needed for platforms and contexts where character limits matter. It displays total characters, characters excluding spaces, word count, line count, and paragraph count — all updated in real-time as you type. Social media platforms, SMS messages, meta descriptions, and many form fields have strict character limits, making this tool essential for anyone crafting content within those constraints. Whether you're writing a tweet, optimizing a Google Ads headline, or ensuring your meta description fits within the recommended 155-160 character range, this tool gives you the precise counts you need.

Why Use Character Counter?

  • Get both character-with-spaces and character-without-spaces counts simultaneously
  • Real-time counting as you type — no need to click a button
  • Also shows word, line, and paragraph counts for complete text analysis
  • Essential for social media posts with strict character limits
  • Works with any language including Unicode, emoji, and special characters

Common Use Cases

Social Media Posts

Stay within Twitter/X's 280-character limit or Instagram's 2,200-character caption limit.

SEO Meta Descriptions

Keep meta descriptions between 150-160 characters for optimal search engine display.

SMS Messages

Check if your SMS fits within the 160-character single-message limit to avoid splitting.

Form Field Validation

Ensure text input meets minimum or maximum character requirements for web forms.

Ad Copy

Write Google Ads headlines (30 chars) and descriptions (90 chars) within their strict limits.

Technical Guide

Character counting measures the length property of the JavaScript string, which counts UTF-16 code units. For most text this equals the number of visible characters, but emoji and some international characters may use two code units (surrogate pairs). The tool provides characters with spaces (total string length) and characters without spaces (removing all whitespace characters including tabs and newlines). Word count splits on whitespace regex /\s+/ and filters empty tokens. Line count splits on newline characters. Paragraph count identifies blocks of text separated by two or more consecutive newlines. The tool uses React's useMemo hook to efficiently recalculate statistics only when the input changes, ensuring smooth real-time performance even with large text inputs.

Tips & Best Practices

  • 1
    For Twitter, remember that URLs always count as 23 characters regardless of actual length
  • 2
    Meta descriptions should be 150-160 characters — Google truncates longer ones
  • 3
    Some emoji count as 2+ characters due to Unicode encoding
  • 4
    Use "characters without spaces" when comparing text density or content length
  • 5
    Google Ads has separate limits for headlines (30) and descriptions (90)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q Do spaces count as characters?
Yes, spaces are characters. The tool shows both "with spaces" and "without spaces" counts so you can use whichever is relevant.
Q How are emojis counted?
Most emojis count as 2 characters due to JavaScript's UTF-16 encoding. Some complex emojis (like flags or skin-tone variants) may count as even more.
Q Does it count newlines as characters?
Yes, newline characters are counted in the "with spaces" total. They are excluded from the "without spaces" count.
Q What's the difference between character count and byte count?
Character count measures visible characters, while byte count depends on encoding. A UTF-8 emoji might be 4 bytes but count as 1-2 characters.
Q Can I paste formatted text from Word or Google Docs?
Yes, the tool automatically strips formatting and counts only the plain text characters.

About This Tool

Character Counter is a free online tool by FreeToolkit.ai. All processing happens directly in your browser — your data never leaves your device. No registration or installation required.