SMS 160-Character Counter
AWS End User Messaging documents one SMS as 160 GSM-7 characters or 70 characters when any text requires UCS-2; multipart segments hold 153 or 67 respectively. This 160-character preset is for GSM-7 text, so verify the encoding before sending Unicode or emoji.
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0 of 160 used
160 remaining
AWS: one SMS fits 160 GSM-7 characters, but only 70 characters when UCS-2 is required.Official source: AWS SMS character limits
Top keywords
Repeated words will appear here.
How to use
- Type or paste your text into the box.
- Read live counts for words, characters, sentences and paragraphs on the right.
- Optionally set a character limit to see how much room you have left.
- Your text is saved in this browser automatically, so a refresh won’t lose it.
How words are counted
Most word counters split text on spaces, which breaks for languages that don’t use them: a Japanese or Chinese sentence would count as a single “word”. This counter uses the browser’s built-in Unicode word segmentation (Intl.Segmenter), so 私は学生です is counted as several words, and emoji with skin tones count as one character instead of two or four.
Numbers count as words. Punctuation and whitespace do not.
Reading and speaking time
Reading time assumes 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for adult non-fiction found in a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies (Brysbaert). Speaking time assumes 150 words per minute, a typical presentation pace. Chinese and Japanese characters are timed per character (300 and 200 characters per minute) because word counts are not comparable across those scripts.
Character limits you might be writing for
Character limits are not interchangeable: a form may include spaces, line breaks, UTF-8 bytes or a platform-specific weighted count. Choose the same rule the destination publishes. The official sources used by the presets are Meta’s IG User Media reference (2,200-character captions), X’s twitter-text v3 configuration (280 weighted characters), Google’s YouTube Data API Videos resource (100-character titles and 5,000-byte descriptions), and NAVER Blog Help (100-character titles).
For global SMS, AWS End User Messaging documents 160 GSM-7 characters or 70 UCS-2 characters in one segment; multipart capacity drops to 153 or 67. Carrier and sender rules can differ.
Frequently asked questions
Does this word counter save or upload my text?
No. Counting happens entirely in your browser. The text is kept only in your browser’s local storage so it survives a refresh; click Clear to remove it.
Are spaces counted as characters?
Both numbers are shown: “Characters” includes spaces and line breaks, “Characters (no spaces)” excludes all whitespace, and “Characters (no line breaks)” excludes only line breaks.
Why is my word count different from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Tools disagree on hyphenated words, numbers with punctuation and text without spaces. This counter follows the browser’s Unicode word-boundary rules, which treat “well-known” as two words and segment Chinese and Japanese into real words.
What is the “2-byte” count for?
Some forms, especially Korean job applications and older systems, measure length in bytes where Latin letters count 1 and other characters count 2. Line breaks are counted as 2 bytes (CR+LF). If a form is strict, test a sample on the form itself.
How many words is a 5-minute speech?
At a typical pace of 150 words per minute, about 750 words. Slow, deliberate speakers manage around 120 words per minute (600 words); fast speakers around 170 (850 words).
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Updated 2026-10-23