Character Counter

Count characters for posts, snippets, and forms

Character limits are stricter than word limits — one character over and a post won’t send, a form field won’t accept your answer, or a search snippet gets cut off mid-word. This counter shows both totals people ask for: the full count including spaces, and the count without spaces that some assignments, translation quotes, and style guides use instead. Emoji and accented letters are counted the way you see them, so the number matches what is on screen.

How to count characters

1. Type or paste your text into the box, or choose Upload Document to open a .txt, .md, .docx, or .pdf file.
2. Read both totals at the top: characters with spaces and characters without spaces. They change as you type.
3. Trim or rewrite until you are under your limit, keeping an eye on the word, sentence, paragraph, and line counts below.
4. Use Copy Text to paste the final version where it’s going, or Clear Text to count something new.

Exactly what each count includes

• Characters counts every letter, number, punctuation mark, symbol, emoji, space, tab, and line break.
• Characters without spaces counts the same things but leaves out all whitespace: spaces, tabs, line breaks, and non-breaking spaces.
• An emoji is one character, including emoji with a skin tone, family and couple emoji, and flags.
• An accented letter is one character whether it was typed as a single “é” or as an “e” plus a combining accent.
• A line break is one character, even when text pasted from Windows stores it as two hidden characters.

Why another site may show a different number

Many apps and databases count storage units (UTF-16 code units or bytes) rather than the characters you see. Measured in UTF-16 units, a single emoji takes anywhere from 2 (😀) to 11 (👨‍👩‍👧‍👦), and more in bytes. HTML forms also send each line break as two characters when submitted. If a platform’s own counter disagrees with this one, emoji and line breaks are almost always the reason.

Your text stays on your device

• Characters are counted by JavaScript running in your browser.
• Your text is never uploaded to Looty Tools or any other server.
• Uploaded documents are opened and read in your browser; the file itself is never sent to Looty Tools.
• Nothing is stored — refreshing or closing the page clears the box.

Limitations

• Uploads accept .txt and .md files up to 5 MB, Word .docx files up to 15 MB, and PDFs up to 25 MB and 50 pages. Older .doc files are not supported, and scanned or image-only PDFs have no text to count. Word headers and footers are not imported.
• Counts are visible characters, not bytes or UTF-16 units, so they will not match a system that measures storage size — for example, some SMS gateways and database fields.
• Platform-specific rules, such as a social network shortening links to a fixed length or weighting some scripts differently, are not applied.
• Invisible characters such as zero-width spaces are counted in both totals even though you cannot see them.
• Pasted and uploaded text is plain text only; formatting and images are not counted.

Related text tools

• Word CounterCount the words in a block of text.
• Sentence CounterCount the sentences in a piece of writing.
• Text to PDFTurn plain text into a clean PDF document.

Character Counter FAQ

Are spaces counted as characters?

In the “Characters” total, yes — every space, tab, and line break counts. “Characters without spaces” leaves out all of those whitespace characters, including non-breaking spaces, and counts everything else.

Do line breaks count as characters?

Yes, each line break counts as one character in the with-spaces total, including breaks pasted from Windows programs that store them as two hidden characters. Line breaks are never included in the without-spaces total.

How are emoji and accented letters counted?

As one character each, the way you see them. A thumbs-up with a skin tone, a family emoji, a flag, or an “é” typed with a combining accent all count as 1, even though they are stored as several code units behind the scenes.

Why does a website or app show a different number?

Many systems count storage units rather than visible characters, so an emoji can count as 2 or more. HTML forms also send each line break as two characters (carriage return plus line feed) when submitted, so a server-side limit may count every line break twice.

Are punctuation marks, numbers, and symbols counted?

Yes. Letters, digits, punctuation, symbols, and emoji all count in both totals. Only whitespace is treated differently.

Can I upload a Word document or PDF instead of pasting?

Yes. Upload Document accepts .txt, .md, Word .docx, and text-based .pdf files, or you can drop a file onto the text box. The file is read in your browser — it is not sent to Looty Tools — and its text replaces whatever is in the box. Scanned PDFs without a text layer and older .doc files are not supported.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. Characters are counted in your browser, and the text is never uploaded to Looty Tools or stored. Refreshing the page clears it.