X/Twitter Character Counter

Calculate how many characters your post uses against the X/Twitter limit.

With X/Twitter Character Counter, you can get this done in seconds instead of doing it by hand. X/Twitter Character Counter makes a detail worth getting right in social content prep quick and easy. The whole process happens locally in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.

Step-by-step

Type or paste your draft into 'Post text', including hashtags, mentions and links, since they all count toward the limit.
Click 'Run' to see how many characters you've used against the limit.
If you're over, trim the text and run it again. Cutting filler words and duplicate hashtags is usually enough.
If you're writing a thread, check each post separately.

Example

You've written an event announcement with the date, venue, a sign-up link and two hashtags, and it runs a few characters over. Using the counter, you cut phrases like 'in addition' and 'at this time', abbreviate the month and drop one hashtag. The post fits, and the parts that matter most, the date and the link, stay intact.

The counter is most useful before a post goes to someone for approval. If the approved wording has to be cut at the last minute, you often end up needing a second round of sign-off.

How are characters counted on X?

The tool counts against X's 280-character limit. X counts links as 23 characters regardless of their length, so a long address may take less room in your post than you expect. Text outside links is counted by plain character length; since X may weigh some characters (such as emoji or Chinese and Japanese text) differently, the result can show small differences.

Practical tips

Put the key message in the first sentence; the post looks short in the feed.
If you plan to add a link, count the text together with it.
If you exceed the limit, cut unnecessary words before splitting the post into parts.

Common mistakes

Adding a link's real length to the count.
Forgetting that emoji can cause small differences.
Not allowing for platform rule changes; check before publishing.

Things to keep in mind

X counts every link as a fixed number of characters regardless of its actual length, and many emoji count as two. Do a final check in the compose box itself.
Accented Latin letters, including Turkish ones like ç or ş, count as a single character each.
Paid accounts can post longer texts, but long posts get collapsed in the timeline. Put the key information in the first lines.
The platform changes its rules from time to time, so its official help pages are the place to confirm the current limit.