Free Online Twitter/X Character Counter for Your Posts
Twitter/X character counter that tracks your post length in real time. Monitor characters, words, sentences, and URL impact instantly — optimized for standard tweets, X Premium posts, and direct messages.
Count Your Twitter/X Post Characters
How to Use This Twitter/X Character Counter
Enter Your Post Text
Type or paste your Twitter/X post content into the text area. The counter starts tracking instantly as you type.
Select Your Post Type
Choose between a standard tweet (280 characters), Twitter Blue extended post (4000 characters), or DM (10000 characters) to set the correct limit.
Review Real-Time Stats
Check the live dashboard showing character count, remaining characters, word count, sentence count, and URL detection results.
Adjust Your Content
Edit your text if you exceed the limit. The counter highlights overflow in red so you can trim your post to fit perfectly.
Copy Your Final Post
Click the Copy Text button to copy your optimized post directly to your clipboard, ready to paste into Twitter/X.
Key Features of Twitter/X Character Counter
Real-Time Character Counting
Characters update instantly as you type with zero delay, giving you live feedback on every keystroke.
Visual Progress Indicator
Color-coded progress bar shifts from purple to orange to red as you approach and exceed the character limit.
Word and Sentence Counter
Tracks word count and sentence count alongside characters so you can gauge your post's readability at a glance.
URL Length Detection
Automatically detects URLs and applies Twitter's 23-character t.co rule to calculate your true effective character count.
Remaining Characters Display
Shows exactly how many characters you have left, turning red with a negative count when you exceed the limit.
100% Privacy Safe
Everything runs in your browser. Your tweets, drafts, and ideas are never transmitted to or stored on any server.
How This Character Counter Works
Counting Methodology Breakdown
The total number of characters in your text as measured by JavaScript, including spaces, punctuation, and emoji sequences.
URLs starting with http://, https://, or www. are identified using a regular expression pattern and counted separately.
Each detected URL is replaced with a 23-character equivalent in the count, matching Twitter's t.co link shortener behavior.
Words are counted by splitting text on whitespace boundaries and filtering out empty segments, giving you an accurate word total.
Sentences are detected by counting terminal punctuation marks (periods, exclamation marks, question marks) that follow non-whitespace characters.
For example, if you type a 200-character tweet containing one URL that is 45 characters long, the raw count is 200. The effective count becomes 200 − 45 + 23 = 178 characters. You would have 280 − 178 = 102 characters remaining.
Assumptions: This counter uses JavaScript's string.length for measurement. Most standard characters (letters, numbers, spaces, basic punctuation) count as 1 character each. Most emojis count as 2 characters. Complex emoji sequences (flags, skin-tone variants, family emojis) may count as more. Twitter's internal counting uses a Unicode-aware weighted system that may differ slightly for certain characters.
Practical Examples
Short Product Announcement Tweet
Input: "🎉 New arrivals just dropped on our store! Premium cotton kurtas starting at ₹499. Free shipping across India. Shop now!"
Result: 116 characters, 18 words, 3 sentences, 0 URLs — 164 characters remaining
Use Case: Quick promotional tweets for Indian e-commerce businesses that need to stay concise and impactful.
Tweet with a URL Link
Input: "Just published my guide on starting a dropshipping business in India. Everything from GST registration to supplier sourcing. https://example.com/dropshipping-guide-india-2025"
Result: 174 raw characters, but the 49-character URL counts as 23, so effective count is 148 characters — 132 remaining
Use Case: Content creators sharing blog posts or articles need to know their actual character budget after Twitter shortens the URL.
Thread-Length Opinion Post
Input: "Hot take: the best marketing strategy for small businesses in 2025 isn't paid ads. It's building a genuine community around your brand. People buy from people they trust. Start conversations, share behind-the-scenes content, and respond to every comment."
Result: 256 characters, 42 words, 4 sentences, 0 URLs — 24 characters remaining
Use Case: When crafting thought-leadership tweets that push close to the limit, this counter helps you trim without losing meaning.
International Tech Update
Input: "Apple's WWDC 2025 keynote was incredible. New features in iOS 19 include AI-powered search and redesigned Control Center. Can't wait to try them! https://developer.apple.com/wwdc25"
Result: 181 raw characters, 43-character URL adjusted to 23, so effective count is 161 characters — 119 remaining
Use Case: Tech enthusiasts and journalists sharing breaking news with source links.
What Is a Twitter/X Character Counter?
A Twitter/X character counter is a real-time text analysis tool that measures exactly how many characters your tweet or post uses against the platform's limit. Since Twitter introduced its 280-character limit (doubled from the original 140), crafting the perfect tweet has become an exercise in precision — every character counts when you are trying to communicate clearly within a fixed space.
This tool is built for social media managers, content creators, digital marketers, business owners, and anyone who posts regularly on Twitter/X. Whether you are drafting a product launch announcement from Mumbai, writing a political commentary thread, or composing a customer support reply, knowing your exact character count before posting prevents embarrassing truncation or failed post submissions.
Beyond basic counting, this tool provides the effective character count by factoring in Twitter's t.co URL shortening — a detail many simple counters miss. If your tweet contains a link, Twitter wraps it in a t.co redirect that always consumes exactly 23 characters, regardless of whether your original URL is 15 or 150 characters long. This tool detects URLs automatically and adjusts the count accordingly, giving you the true remaining space for your message.
The tool also supports the three distinct character limits on the platform: 280 for standard tweets, 4,000 for X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue) long-form posts, and 10,000 for direct messages. Switching between these modes instantly recalculates your stats and progress bar.
Sources and Methodology
This character counter uses JavaScript's native string length property for measurement, which counts UTF-16 code units. The URL detection and 23-character t.co replacement rule is based on the standard behavior documented in Twitter/X's developer platform guidelines. Word counting uses whitespace-based tokenization, and sentence detection relies on terminal punctuation patterns. The three character limits (280, 4,000, and 10,000) reflect the current limits as publicly stated by X/Twitter for standard accounts, premium subscribers, and direct messages respectively.
Important Considerations
While this tool provides highly accurate results for most standard text, Twitter/X uses an internal Unicode-aware weighted counting system where certain characters (particularly CJK characters, some mathematical symbols, and complex emoji sequences) may be counted differently than JavaScript's string.length reports. For tweets composed entirely in standard Latin text, numbers, spaces, and common emoji, the count will match Twitter's exactly. For tweets with significant non-Latin or complex Unicode content, consider verifying in Twitter's own compose box for the final character count.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, this Twitter/X character counter is 100% free to use. There are no hidden charges, no signup required, no premium tiers, and no usage limits. You can count characters for as many tweets as you need without any restrictions.
Absolutely. All character counting happens directly in your browser using client-side JavaScript. Your tweet text is never sent to any server, never stored anywhere, and never shared with any third party. The tool works entirely offline once the page loads.
This counter uses standard JavaScript string length measurement, which accurately counts characters as they appear in your text. It matches Twitter/X's visible character count for standard text. Note that Twitter uses a weighted system where URLs count as 23 characters and some special characters may be counted differently. This tool detects URLs and applies the 23-character rule for accurate results.
Standard Twitter/X posts have a 280-character limit. Twitter Blue (X Premium) subscribers can post up to 4,000 characters. Direct messages allow up to 10,000 characters. This tool supports all three limits so you can check your content against the correct threshold.
Yes, Twitter/X wraps all URLs using their t.co link shortener, which counts every URL as exactly 23 characters regardless of the actual URL length. This tool automatically detects URLs in your text and applies the 23-character rule to give you an accurate effective character count.
While this tool is designed for individual tweets, you can use it to check each tweet in your thread one at a time. Type each segment, verify it fits within the 280-character limit, copy it, then clear and start the next segment.
Yes, the counter handles emojis and special characters. Most emojis count as 2 characters in JavaScript's string length, which aligns closely with Twitter/X's counting. Complex emojis like skin-tone variants or flag emojis may use more characters. The counter reflects what JavaScript measures, giving you a reliable approximation.
When your text exceeds the selected character limit, the counter turns red, the progress bar fills completely with a warning color, and the remaining count shows a negative number. This visual feedback helps you quickly identify how many characters you need to trim.