SMS character counter: how many messages will your text use?
Type or paste your message to see its length, the encoding it needs and how many SMS segments it will be billed as.
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How SMS length is counted.
The limit depends on the characters you use, not only on how many there are.
A text message is encoded in one of two ways. The default GSM 7-bit alphabet covers basic Latin letters, digits and common punctuation, and fits 160 characters in one message. A few characters from it, such as [ ] { } ~ ^ | \ and the euro sign, count as two.
As soon as a message contains a character outside that alphabet, such as a Cyrillic letter, a curly quote, an em dash or an emoji, the whole message switches to Unicode (UCS-2), where one message holds only 70 characters.
Longer messages are split into segments, and each segment carries a small header, so a segment holds 153 GSM characters or 67 Unicode characters. Every segment is billed as a message, and some phones show them out of order, so shorter is better.
Common questions
Why did one character cut my limit to 70? +
A single character outside the GSM alphabet, often a curly apostrophe pasted from a word processor, makes the entire message Unicode. The counter lists the characters responsible so you can replace them.
Why is the limit 153 and not 160 when a message is split? +
Part of each segment is used for a header that tells the phone how to put the parts back together.
How many characters does an emoji take? +
Emoji aren't in the GSM alphabet, so they force Unicode, and most take two Unicode positions each.
Do links count? +
Yes, every character of the URL counts. Shortening a long tracked link into a short one is the easiest way to save space.