Characters and bytes
A letter like é counts as one character but uses two UTF-8 bytes. Most emojis count as one character and use four bytes.
A LITTLE HELP WITH YOUR TEXT
Text stays on your device
Text Size Calculator
Count characters, words and lines, and see the exact size of your text in UTF-8 bytes and UTF-16 code units.
1 Your text
Counts update as you type.
Processed in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
THREE SMALL STEPS
How to measure the size of a text
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01
Paste your text
Type or paste the text you want to measure, up to 200,000 characters.
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02
Read the counts
Characters, words, lines, UTF-8 bytes and UTF-16 code units update as you type.
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03
Compare with the limit
Check the figure that matches your platform, such as characters for a social post or bytes for a database field.
Good to know
UTF-16 code units
JavaScript and many older systems count UTF-16 code units, where most emojis count as two.
Private by design
The counts are calculated in your browser, so drafts and confidential text are never uploaded.
QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
How do I check the UTF-8 byte size of text?
Paste your text and read the UTF-8 bytes result. A plain ASCII character uses one byte, while accented letters and emoji can use more. Use the byte count, rather than the character count, when a system specifies a byte limit.
How many bytes is a character?
In UTF-8, English letters and digits use 1 byte, most accented letters 2 bytes, many Asian characters 3 bytes and most emojis 4 bytes.
Why does another tool show a different character count?
Tools count differently: some count UTF-16 code units, where an emoji counts as two, and some count a combined emoji as a single character.
How are words counted?
Words are groups of characters separated by spaces or line breaks, so a hyphenated word counts as one.