The fastest way
- Paste your text into the Word Counter — words, characters, sentences and reading time update as you type.
- For strict character limits, the Character Counter focuses on characters with and without spaces.
The limits worth knowing
- X (Twitter): 280 characters.
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters.
- Google meta description: ~155–160 characters before it's cut off.
- Google title tag: ~60 characters.
- Essays and articles are usually set in words, not characters.
How words are counted
A "word" is any run of characters separated by spaces, tabs or line breaks — the same rule word processors use, so "state-of-the-art" counts as one word. Character counts come in two flavours (with and without spaces) because different platforms measure differently.
Private
Counting happens entirely in your browser, so drafts and confidential text never leave your device.