Twitter Character Counter Online

Twitter (now X) limits standard posts to 280 characters. It's easy to lose track of your count while drafting, especially when you're editing down from something longer. This tool counts characters and words in real time and shows exactly how much space you have left.

How it works

As you type, the tool counts characters using JavaScript's string length property (which handles Unicode correctly) and displays the remaining character count against the 280-character limit. Word count updates simultaneously.

How to use it

1. Type or paste your tweet text into the input area
2. The character count and remaining limit update in real time
3. The counter turns red when you're approaching or over the limit
4. Edit until you're within 280 characters

A few things worth knowing

• URLs count as 23 characters: Twitter wraps all URLs in its t.co shortener, which is always 23 characters regardless of the original URL's length. This tool counts the raw characters you type — the actual tweet's effective character usage for URLs will differ from what you see here
• Emoji count as 2 characters: Most emoji use Unicode characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane and count as 2 characters in Twitter's character system. This tool uses JavaScript's native string length, which may give different results for emoji-heavy text
• 280 is for standard posts: Twitter's API has different limits for different features (DMs, thread replies on older API versions). This tool targets the standard 280-character post limit

FAQ

Why does Twitter's counter show a different number from this tool? Twitter applies its own counting rules — 23 characters for any URL, 2 characters for most emoji, and specific handling for certain Unicode ranges. This tool counts raw characters as typed. The difference is typically small unless you have links or many emoji.

What was the character limit before 2017? 140 characters. Twitter doubled it to 280 in November 2017 for most languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean were already at 280 since they convey more meaning per character).

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