SMS Character Counter
Count SMS characters and message segments. See exactly when your text splits into multiple billed messages — including the hidden emoji penalty.
0
Characters
160
Remaining
0
Words
0
SMS Segments
Encoding: GSM-7 — 160 characters per message
How to use SMS Character Counter.
- 1
Type or paste your text into the box
- 2
Watch the live counter track your 160-character budget
- 3
Trim until the remaining count is comfortable
- 4
Copy your final text with one click
Why use this tool.
Never get cut off — see exactly when you cross SMS's limit
Draft and trim in one place instead of counting by trial and error
Nothing you type is stored or transmitted
Free, instant, no signup
About SMS Character Counter.
SMS pricing has a trap: the limit is 160 characters — until a single emoji or smart quote silently switches the message to UCS-2 encoding and the limit drops to 70. For anyone sending campaigns through Twilio-style providers that bill per segment, that one character can double or triple the cost of every message. This counter shows your character count, detects the encoding your text will actually use, and calculates the exact number of billed segments as you type. Draft, trim, and know your cost before you hit send. Everything stays in your browser.
Frequently asked questions.
What is the SMS character limit?
A single SMS carries 160 characters using the standard GSM-7 alphabet. Longer texts are split into segments of 153 characters each (7 characters go to segment headers), and carriers bill per segment.
Why does one emoji cut my limit to 70 characters?
Any character outside the GSM-7 alphabet — emoji, smart quotes, many accented letters — forces the entire message into UCS-2 encoding, which halves capacity: 70 characters per single message, 67 per segment in multipart texts. This counter detects that automatically.
What counts as a GSM-7 character?
Standard letters, digits, and common punctuation. A few symbols ([, ], {, }, ~, ^, \, |, €) are GSM-7 but count as two characters each. The counter accounts for these.
Why does segment count matter?
Bulk SMS providers (Twilio and similar) bill per segment, not per message. A 320-character campaign message is 3 segments — 3× the cost. Trimming to 160 GSM-7 characters, or removing a single emoji, can cut your SMS bill in half.