Character Counter
Count characters with and without spaces, words, paragraphs and UTF-8 bytes as you type. Nothing you enter is sent to a server.
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Character Counter: complete guide
Walk through the steps and examples, or jump straight to the topic you need.
At a glance
- What it calculates
- Character count with and without spaces, number of words, lines, and paragraphs, UTF-8 bytes, EUC-KR bytes (2 bytes per Hangul character), and the number of 200-character Korean manuscript sheets, all as you type.
- Input
- Typed or pasted text, or a UTF-8 text file. The input limit is 100,000 characters, and files must be 512 KB or less.
- Character basis
- Counts in units of visible character groups. The unit of the input length limit and the displayed count can differ for things like emoji.
- Target
- Set a target from 1 to 100,000 characters and choose whether to exclude spaces.
- Saving and copying
- You can copy the text or the figures. The text you were writing stays only in this browser and isn't saved to an account or a server. Pressing Clear erases it.
- Manuscript sheets
- An estimate of 200-character Korean manuscript sheets, using the rules of leaving the first cell of a paragraph blank and putting two lowercase letters or digits in one cell.
How to use Character Counter
Enter the text you will submit
Paste your text into the text input area. To load a file, you must first empty the input area. Word and PDF files are not read directly, so copy the text you need from the document and use that.
Pick the figure that matches the submission requirements
With spaces and without spaces give different results. If the submission notice states a byte limit, check the UTF-8 size too. If the organization uses a different character encoding, the values may differ from this tool.
Polish it to fit the target length
Enter a target character count and decide whether the target excludes spaces. You can edit the text while watching the characters remaining or the amount over. Setting a target does not cut your text automatically.
Copy the finished text and the figures
Copy text copies the body, and copy figures copies the calculation results. Check the character count again after pasting into the submission site. If its rules for counting line breaks, emoji, and spaces differ, the final check must follow that site's standard.
What it’s good for
Checking the character count of a cover letter or assignment
Paste in your text and check the count with or without spaces, depending on the submission requirements. If you enter a target character count, you can see how much remains and how much you are over. The submission site may count differently, so do a final check in its own input box as well.
How do characters and bytes differ?
Characters are counted as the units you see on screen, and bytes as the data size when represented in UTF-8. For example, a Korean Hangul syllable such as the one for "ga" is 1 character but takes 3 bytes in UTF-8. Emoji and combining characters can use several bytes, and line breaks are counted in bytes too.
Worked examples
Multibyte characters and spacing
あ い3 characters with spaces · 2 without spaces
2 words · UTF-8 7BParagraphs separated by a blank line
あい
うえ6 characters with spaces · 4 without spaces
3 lines · 2 paragraphs · UTF-8 14BWhich figure should you check?
Swipe the table sideways to see the rest.
| Figure | When to use it | How it is calculated |
|---|---|---|
| With spaces | Text where spaces count toward the length | Spaces, tabs, and line breaks are included in the count. |
| Without spaces | Submission rules that count the content length without spaces | Whitespace characters are removed, then visible character units are counted. |
| UTF-8 bytes | When checking storage size or a byte limit | The size of the text represented in UTF-8. Korean, Japanese, and emoji use several bytes. |
When the result isn’t what you expected
The count differs from another site
First match whether spaces are included. Then check how line breaks and emoji are counted. This tool counts visible character groups, so it can differ from input boxes that count by internal code units.
I can't load the file
If the input area is already filled, copy the text you need somewhere safe and then empty it. Check that the file is UTF-8 text and within the 512 KB and 100,000-character limits. Just changing a document's extension to TXT does not turn its contents into text.
The paragraph count is lower than expected
Paragraphs are separated by blank lines. Text with only a single line break can count as the same paragraph even as the lines increase. Automatic line wrapping on screen does not add line break characters to the original text.
Key terms
- UTF-8
- An encoding that represents characters as bytes. It is used for this tool's byte calculation and file reading.
- Visible character unit
- A group, such as a letter or a combined emoji, that is read on screen as a single character.
- Whitespace character
- Besides spaces, this includes tabs and line breaks.
Character Counter FAQ
Does the count without spaces also leave out line breaks?
Yes. The count without spaces removes whitespace characters such as spaces, tabs, and line breaks before counting. The UTF-8 byte count is calculated from the original text as entered.
Can I load a file to count its characters?
You can load UTF-8 text files. Files up to 512 KB and input up to 100,000 characters are supported. It does not extract the contents of Word or PDF documents directly.
How are words and paragraphs separated?
Words are chunks separated by spaces, and paragraphs are separated by blank lines. This may differ from Korean morphological analysis or a word processor's word count.
Does it check spelling too?
It is a tool for counting characters and length, and it does not provide spelling or grammar correction or sentence evaluation. To tidy up spaces, you can use the related tool for cleaning up whitespace in text.
Is my text deleted if I go over the target?
The target is a reference that tells you the remaining length. Even if you go over, the text is not deleted automatically, and you edit it yourself.