What is Character Counter?
Character Counter is a free online tool that instantly analyzes your text and provides detailed statistics including character count, word count, sentence count, paragraph count, and estimated reading and speaking times.
Whether you're crafting a tweet, writing a meta description, or preparing content for any platform with character limits, this tool helps you stay within bounds while optimizing your message.
Why Use a Character Counter?
Many platforms enforce strict character limits. Exceeding these limits can result in truncated text, broken formatting, or rejected submissions. A character counter helps you:
Stay Within Platform Limits
Check your text against Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and dozens of other platform requirements
Optimize for SEO
Ensure meta titles and descriptions fit search engine display limits
Improve Readability
Monitor sentence and paragraph counts for better content structure
Plan Presentations
Estimate speaking time for speeches and presentations
Manage AI Costs
Estimate token counts for AI API usage
Who Benefits from This Tool?
Character Counter is designed for content creators, marketers, social media managers, SEO specialists, copywriters, students, and anyone who works with text that has length requirements. The tool works entirely in your browser, ensuring your content remains private and secure.
How to Use Character Counter
Using the Character Counter tool is straightforward. Follow these simple steps to analyze your text and check against platform limits.
Enter Your Text
Type directly into the text area or paste content from another source. The tool accepts any text including letters, numbers, symbols, and special characters. Statistics update instantly as you type.
Choose Plain Text or Rich Editor
Select your preferred input mode:
- Plain Text: Simple text input, ideal for quick counting and basic content
- Rich Editor: Full-featured editor with formatting options like bold, italic, lists, and more. Perfect for creating formatted content while tracking character counts
Set a Character Limit (Optional)
Select a platform preset from the dropdown menu to see a visual progress bar showing how close you are to the limit. Available presets include:
- SEO: Meta Title (60), Meta Description (160)
- Social Media: Twitter (280), Instagram (2,200), LinkedIn (3,000)
- YouTube: Title (100), Description (5,000)
- Advertising: Google Ads Headline (30), Facebook Ad (125)
You can also select "Custom" to enter any specific character limit for your needs.
Review Your Statistics
View your results in the statistics panels. Primary stats show Characters and Words prominently. Secondary stats display additional metrics including characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, speaking time, and estimated AI tokens.
Click the question mark icon next to any statistic to learn more about how it's calculated.
Features and Capabilities
Character Counter provides comprehensive text analysis with features designed to help you create content that meets any platform's requirements.
Real-Time Statistics
All statistics update instantly as you type or edit your text. There's no need to click a button or wait for processing. The tool provides:
Character Count
Characters (No Spaces)
Word Count
Sentence Count
Paragraph Count
Reading Time
Speaking Time
AI Tokens
Platform Limit Presets
Choose from over 50 preset character limits organized by category. The visual progress bar changes color as you approach or exceed the limit:
Rich Text Editor
The built-in rich text editor supports formatting options including bold, italic, underline, lists, links, tables, and more. This allows you to create formatted content while still tracking accurate character counts based on the actual text content.
Privacy First
Frequently Asked Questions
How are characters counted?
Characters are counted exactly as they appear in your text, including letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation, and spaces. The "No Spaces" count excludes all whitespace characters including spaces, tabs, and line breaks.
How is reading time calculated?
Reading time is estimated based on an average reading speed of 200 words per minute. This is a standard rate for adult readers consuming online content. Actual reading time may vary based on content complexity and reader proficiency.
How is speaking time calculated?
Speaking time uses an average rate of 150 words per minute, which is typical for presentations and public speaking. Professional speakers often aim for 120-150 words per minute for clarity.
What are AI tokens?
AI tokens are the units that language models like GPT use to process text. As a general rule, one token equals approximately 4 characters in English. This estimate helps you gauge API costs when using AI services. Actual token counts may vary depending on the specific model and language.
Is my text stored or sent anywhere?
No. All processing happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your text never leaves your device and is not stored, transmitted, or logged anywhere. You can use this tool with complete confidence for sensitive content.
Why do some platforms have different limits?
Each platform sets its own character limits based on their design, user experience goals, and technical requirements. For example, Twitter's 280-character limit encourages concise messaging, while LinkedIn allows 3,000 characters to accommodate professional content. Our preset list includes the most current limits for major platforms.
Can I use the rich text editor for social media posts?
While the rich editor is great for creating formatted content, most social media platforms don't support rich formatting in posts. The character count shown reflects the plain text content, which is what matters for platform limits. Use the rich editor when creating content for websites, emails, or documents that support HTML formatting.
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