Text Counter
Free online text counter. Count characters, words, sentences and paragraphs in real time — plus reading time estimation. No uploads.
Text Counter guide
The platform limits that actually matter
Character limits decide whether your text survives posting — and they differ wildly.
| Platform / context | Limit | Counts |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters | Most chars = 1; emoji = 2 |
| SMS message | 160 characters | Per segment (GSM-7) |
| Meta description (SEO) | ≈ 155-160 characters | Truncated in results beyond this |
| Google Ads headline | 30 characters | Per headline slot |
| Meta title (SEO) | ≈ 55-60 characters | Pixel width, not just chars |
| Tweet reply / Bluesky | 280 / 300 characters | — |
Characters vs words vs reading time
English prose averages about 5 characters per word plus a space — useful for converting one metric into another. Reading time assumes roughly 200-250 words per minute for adults on ordinary prose; 1,000 words ≈ 4-5 minutes. These are estimates: technical writing slows readers down, light fiction speeds them up.
Writing to a limit without butchering the text
Cut these first: adverbs that repeat the verb's meaning (“shouted loudly”), hedges (“somewhat”, “I think”), and the second half of redundant pairs (“each and every”). Replace phrases with single words (“in order to” → “to”, “due to the fact that” → “because”). This routinely trims 15-20% without touching meaning — far better than deleting whole sentences at the end.