Character and word counter

Character counter guide: which value should you use?

Count text for application forms, blog posts, emails, social posts and meta descriptions. Compare characters with and without whitespace, word counts and actual UTF-8 bytes. A separate estimate reflects a legacy convention found in some Korean forms, where a Korean syllable counts as 2 bytes instead of its 3 UTF-8 bytes. A label such as 1,000 characters or 2,000 bytes needs the destination's own counting rule before the values can be compared. Drop a .txt file into the editor to load its text, then use Copy all to take the original text to your clipboard.

When text has a limit, remaining space is often more useful than the total. Choose 500, 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 characters with whitespace, 1,000 without whitespace, or the 2,000/4,000-byte estimates for Korean forms. The remaining amount, excess and progress bar update immediately. Use Custom for another counting rule and limit. Reading time is an estimate based on the words per minute you enter; lines and sentences are counted separately using line breaks and punctuation. Processing stays in the browser without saving the text to a server. For background, see the guide to character counting (Korean); use this page for the live totals.

How to use

1. Type or paste text, or drop a .txt file into the editor.
2. Compare characters with and without whitespace and select the rule required by the destination.
3. For byte limits, compare the Korean form estimate (2 bytes per syllable) or UTF-8 (3 per Korean syllable) only as the destination specifies.
4. Choose a preset or enter a custom limit to see remaining space and any excess.
5. Adjust reading speed if needed, copy the full original text, then compare the final total in the destination's own counter.

With or without whitespace: which limit is stricter?

For the same text, the count with whitespace is always at least as large as the count without it. A 1,000-character limit including whitespace is therefore stricter than the same limit excluding it. However, a destination may count UTF-16 units, visible characters or weighted URLs, producing a different result. Check its whitespace, line-break and character rules, then compare the final submission counter.

Why are there two byte counts?

UTF-8 uses 1 to 4 bytes per character. ASCII letters, digits and spaces use 1 byte, a Korean syllable 3 and a basic emoji 4. The separate form estimate counts ASCII as 1 byte and every other code point as 2 to reflect a convention in some Korean forms. It does not report actual EUC-KR or CP949 encoding for accented letters or emoji. APIs, databases and social platforms may impose different rules, so use the UTF-8 total when UTF-8 is explicitly required.

Emoji, special characters and line breaks

One Unicode code point counts as one character. A basic emoji such as 😀 is 1 character and 4 UTF-8 bytes, but skin tones, combining marks and ZWJ sequences can contain several code points and more bytes. The editor normalizes CRLF and CR line endings to LF, so its total may differ from the original file's byte size. Line counts include a final empty line. Sentence counts use punctuation and some abbreviation rules rather than complete language-specific grammar.

Reading time is an estimate

Reading time divides the word count by your words-per-minute setting and rounds up, with a minimum of 1 minute when words are present. The default of 300 words/min is a starting example, not a promise of real reading speed. Adjust it for the language, difficulty and reading style, and read speeches or announcements aloud to check. Word counts also use a simple grouping rule that may not identify every language's word boundaries accurately.

These counts follow this browser tool's rules. Hiring platforms, CMSs and messaging services may use their own methods. Compare with the destination before final submission.