Free Letter Counter
Count letters and characters live as you type — with and without spaces — plus words, sentences, and reading time. Free and private.
A letter counter tallies the characters in your text instantly — with and without spaces — alongside words, sentences, and paragraphs. Humanit’s free letter counter runs entirely in your browser, so it works on any length of text and nothing is ever uploaded.
How it works
- 1Paste your text. Type or paste your text into the letter counter above.
- 2See results instantly. The numbers update live as you type — there’s no button to press.
- 3Edit and re-check. Tweak your text and watch the results change in real time.
Letters, characters, and what platforms actually count
In everyday use “letter count” and “character count” mean the same thing: every keystroke of visible text. Most platform limits — tweets, bios, meta descriptions, SMS — count every character including spaces and punctuation, so the with-spaces number is usually the one that matters. The no-spaces figure is there for the assignments and forms that ask for it explicitly.
Common limits worth knowing
A single SMS is 160 characters; an X/Twitter post is 280; an Instagram bio is 150; a Google search snippet comfortably shows about 155–165 characters of a meta description; and LinkedIn headlines cap at 220. Paste your draft above and the live count tells you exactly how much room is left before a platform truncates you.
Why letters-per-word matters for readability
Texts packed with long words are objectively harder to read — readability formulas like Flesch Reading Ease score word length directly. If your average word length is creeping up, swapping a few long Latinate words for short ones does more for clarity than any other single edit. Check the full picture with the free readability checker.
Emoji and accents count for more than one character
This is where character counters quietly disagree with each other, and it matters if you are writing to a hard limit. A single emoji is usually two units in the encoding most platforms measure, and some — a flag, or an emoji with a skin-tone modifier — are four, seven, or more, because they are several code points glued together. Accented letters can also count as two if the accent is stored separately from the letter. A counter that reports what a human sees will say one; a platform enforcing a byte or code-unit limit may say four. If you are within a few characters of a hard cap and your text has emoji in it, paste it into the real field and check before you rely on any counter, this one included.
Where the SMS 160 limit really comes from
The 160-character figure is not arbitrary — it comes from the 7-bit encoding SMS was designed around, which fits 160 characters into a 140-byte message. The catch is that the moment you include a character outside that basic set — an emoji, a curly quote your phone auto-inserted, an accented letter, or an em dash — the whole message switches to a 16-bit encoding and the limit drops to 70 characters. That is why a message you thought was one SMS suddenly bills as three. If you are writing SMS at scale, straight quotes and plain hyphens are worth real money.
Writing to a limit without sounding compressed
The usual instinct when you are over a character limit is to delete words until it fits, which is how you end up with a bio that reads like a telegram. The better move is to cut a whole idea rather than trim every phrase — one clear claim in natural language beats three claims crushed into abbreviations. For meta descriptions specifically, remember that Google truncates by pixel width, not character count, so a description full of wide capital letters gets cut earlier than the character number suggests. Keep the important half first.
Free, unlimited, and private
The letter counter is free with no sign-up and no limit on how much text you process. Because it runs entirely in your browser, your text is never sent to a server, stored, or used to train any AI — it never leaves your device. When you’re ready to do more with your writing, Humanit’s AI humanizer and AI detector are one click away.
| Where | Limit (characters) | Counts spaces? |
|---|---|---|
| SMS (single message) | 160 | Yes |
| X / Twitter post | 280 | Yes |
| Instagram bio | 150 | Yes |
| Meta description (safe) | ~155–165 | Yes |
| LinkedIn headline | 220 | Yes |
Frequently asked questions
Does the letter count include spaces?
Both numbers are shown live: characters with spaces and without. Most platform limits count spaces, so the with-spaces figure is usually the one to watch.
Are numbers and punctuation counted as letters?
They are counted as characters — which is what nearly every real-world limit measures. If a form asks for strictly alphabetic letters only, use the no-spaces figure as your closest guide and subtract digits manually.
Is there a length limit on what I can paste?
No. The counter runs entirely in your browser, so it handles anything from a tweet to a full manuscript instantly.
Do emoji count as one character?
Visually yes, technically often no. Most platforms measure in code units, where a typical emoji counts as two and a flag or skin-tone variant can count as four or more. If you are close to a hard limit and using emoji, verify in the real field before publishing.
Why did my 160-character SMS split into multiple messages?
SMS fits 160 characters only in its basic 7-bit character set. One emoji, curly quote, em dash, or accented letter switches the message to a 16-bit encoding, which drops the limit to 70 characters — so the same text suddenly costs two or three messages.
What is the difference between a letter counter and a character counter?
In practice nothing — both count every visible keystroke, and almost every real limit (tweets, bios, SMS, meta tags) measures characters including spaces and punctuation. "Letter counter" is simply the phrase more people search for.
Do I need an account?
No. There’s no sign-up and no install — open the page and start typing.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes — it works in any modern browser on phone, tablet, or desktop.
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Open the AI HumanizerLast updated: July 2026