What exactly is counted?

Six figures: total characters, characters excluding whitespace, words, lines, paragraphs and UTF-8 bytes. They update as you type, so you can watch a figure approach a limit while editing rather than checking afterwards.

Which count do social platforms use?

It varies, and the details matter. Several platforms count a URL as a fixed length regardless of its real length, and some count characters outside the basic Latin range as two. Use the character count here as a close guide and confirm against the platform's own counter before posting something close to the limit.

Why is the byte count so much higher than the character count?

Because UTF-8 uses more than one byte for anything beyond ASCII. Accented Latin characters take two bytes, CJK characters three and most emoji four. If your text is Japanese, expect the byte count to be roughly three times the character count.

When does the byte count matter?

Whenever a limit is enforced on storage rather than on display. Database columns are often sized in bytes, as are many protocol fields, filename limits and some API payload caps. A value that fits a character limit can still be rejected by a byte limit.

How are emoji counted?

An emoji built from several code points, such as one with a skin tone modifier or a flag, contributes more than one to the character count even though it appears as a single symbol. This is inherent to how emoji are encoded, and it is why emoji-heavy text hits limits faster than it looks like it should.

Does the word count work for Japanese or Chinese?

Not meaningfully, because those languages do not separate words with spaces and the count is based on whitespace. Use the character count instead, which is the measure those languages' own conventions use for length requirements.

How is a paragraph defined?

By blank lines. A run of consecutive non-empty lines counts as one paragraph, and an empty line separates them. That matches how most people structure text, though it means a document using single line breaks between paragraphs will report fewer than you expect.

Does it count trailing whitespace?

Yes, in the total character count, which is deliberate: trailing spaces are real characters and count towards a limit. The figure excluding whitespace is there for when you want the substance rather than the exact submitted length.

Is there a length limit on what I can paste?

No fixed limit, though counting a very large document recalculates on every keystroke and may feel slow. For anything book-length, a desktop editor's word count is more comfortable.

Is the text I measure sent to a server?

No. Counting runs in your browser, and the text is never transmitted, stored or logged. Closing the tab discards it.

Character Counter – Characters, Words, Lines and Bytes

Character Counter

// INPUT

Characters0

Without spaces0

Words0

Lines0

Bytes0

Paragraphs0

// Character Counter: Features

Six counts, because limits differ

An essay brief counts words. A database column counts bytes. A social post counts characters. A form validation might count characters excluding spaces. These are genuinely different numbers for the same text, and reading the wrong one is how people discover at submission time that they are over a limit. Showing all six removes the guesswork about which convention applies.

Characters and bytes are not the same

The byte count assumes UTF-8, which is what the web and nearly all modern storage use. In UTF-8 an ASCII character takes one byte, a Latin character with an accent takes two, most Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters take three, and most emoji take four. A line of Japanese that reads as thirty characters occupies ninety bytes. If a limit is expressed in bytes, as database column sizes and many protocol fields are, the character count will not tell you whether you fit.

Why counts differ between tools

Because a character is not one thing. An emoji with a skin tone modifier is a single symbol on screen built from two code points joined by a modifier; a flag emoji is two; a family emoji can be seven. A tool counting UTF-16 code units, one counting Unicode code points and one counting user-perceived characters will all give different answers for the same emoji, and none of them is wrong. When a platform enforces a limit, what matters is which unit that platform counts in.

What counts as a word

Words are counted by splitting on whitespace, which is the convention almost every word counter uses and which matches what a word processor reports. It works well for languages that separate words with spaces and poorly for those that do not: a paragraph of Japanese or Chinese has no spaces, so the word count is not meaningful there. Use the character count for those languages, which is what their own conventions use anyway.

Measuring a confidential draft without uploading it

Counting happens as you type, in your browser. Draft manuscripts, unpublished articles, confidential reports and customer correspondence can all be measured without being transmitted, stored or logged. For a deeper breakdown, including which characters and words appear most often, the text statistics tool in the Japanese edition goes further.

// Character Counter: FAQ

What exactly is counted?: Six figures: total characters, characters excluding whitespace, words, lines, paragraphs and UTF-8 bytes. They update as you type, so you can watch a figure approach a limit while editing rather than checking afterwards.
Which count do social platforms use?: It varies, and the details matter. Several platforms count a URL as a fixed length regardless of its real length, and some count characters outside the basic Latin range as two. Use the character count here as a close guide and confirm against the platform's own counter before posting something close to the limit.
Why is the byte count so much higher than the character count?: Because UTF-8 uses more than one byte for anything beyond ASCII. Accented Latin characters take two bytes, CJK characters three and most emoji four. If your text is Japanese, expect the byte count to be roughly three times the character count.
When does the byte count matter?: Whenever a limit is enforced on storage rather than on display. Database columns are often sized in bytes, as are many protocol fields, filename limits and some API payload caps. A value that fits a character limit can still be rejected by a byte limit.
How are emoji counted?: An emoji built from several code points, such as one with a skin tone modifier or a flag, contributes more than one to the character count even though it appears as a single symbol. This is inherent to how emoji are encoded, and it is why emoji-heavy text hits limits faster than it looks like it should.
Does the word count work for Japanese or Chinese?: Not meaningfully, because those languages do not separate words with spaces and the count is based on whitespace. Use the character count instead, which is the measure those languages' own conventions use for length requirements.
How is a paragraph defined?: By blank lines. A run of consecutive non-empty lines counts as one paragraph, and an empty line separates them. That matches how most people structure text, though it means a document using single line breaks between paragraphs will report fewer than you expect.
Does it count trailing whitespace?: Yes, in the total character count, which is deliberate: trailing spaces are real characters and count towards a limit. The figure excluding whitespace is there for when you want the substance rather than the exact submitted length.
Is there a length limit on what I can paste?: No fixed limit, though counting a very large document recalculates on every keystroke and may feel slow. For anything book-length, a desktop editor's word count is more comfortable.
Is the text I measure sent to a server?: No. Counting runs in your browser, and the text is never transmitted, stored or logged. Closing the tab discards it.

// How to Use Character Counter

Paste the text to measure

Put the text into the input box. All six counts appear immediately and update as you type or edit.
Read the count that applies

Use words for an essay or article brief, characters for a social post or a form limit, and bytes when the limit comes from a database column or a protocol field.
Edit against the number

Because the figures update live, you can trim towards a limit while writing rather than discovering afterwards that you are over it.

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