Character Counter — With & Without Spaces, Real-Time
Count every character in your text with and without spaces, in real time. UtilHub's Character Counter is built for anyone working within character limits — Twitter's 280 characters, Instagram's 2,200-character captions, Google's 160-character meta descriptions, or academic submission requirements. Paste or type your text and watch the counts update instantly. A visual progress bar shows how close you are to common platform limits.
How to use Character Counter
- Type or paste your text — Enter text in the input field. Counts update live on every keystroke.
- View character and word counts — See total characters, characters without spaces, words, sentences, and paragraphs instantly. The tool also counts unique words.
- Check the platform bars — Twitter/X (280), SMS (160), Instagram bio (150), Google Ads headline (30), Google Ads description (90), meta title (60), and meta description (155) each get a bar showing exactly how much space remains.
- Copy or reset — Click Copy to save your text to clipboard with the count attached, or Clear to start fresh.
Features
- Dual count display — Shows character count with spaces and without spaces simultaneously, since different platforms count differently.
- Platform limit presets — Live bars for X (280), Threads, Bluesky, Instagram caption (2,200) and bio (150), LinkedIn (3,000), YouTube, title tag (60), meta description (155), Google Ads and SMS (160) — all at once.
- Visual progress bar — Each bar fills as you type, turning amber past 90% of the limit and red when you go over.
- Fully private — All counting happens in your browser. Your text is never sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between character count with spaces and without spaces?
"With spaces" counts every single character including spaces, tabs, and line breaks. "Without spaces" counts only non-space characters. Different platforms and requirements use different counting methods — Twitter counts spaces, while some academic submissions count characters excluding spaces. This tool shows both so you always have the right number.
What are the character limits for popular social media platforms?
Twitter/X allows 280 characters per tweet, Instagram captions allow 2,200 characters, LinkedIn posts allow 3,000 characters, Facebook posts allow 63,206 characters, and YouTube descriptions allow 5,000 characters. The character counter has preset buttons for the most common limits.
How many characters should a Google meta description be?
Google typically displays 150–160 characters of a meta description before truncating with an ellipsis, though it sometimes shows up to 920 pixels (roughly 158 chars desktop, 120 mobile). Aim for 150–160 characters with the primary keyword near the start and an implicit call-to-action at the end. The Twitter/X preset is also useful for the 280-char meta-description equivalent on social cards.