Twitter Character Counter: Check Tweet Length Online
A free Twitter character counter — paste your draft to check the tweet length instantly, see what counts, and trim it to fit 280 characters.
Twitter gives every post 280 characters — and every character counts, including spaces, punctuation, and emoji. A Twitter character counter shows your running total as you type, so you never hit the "over limit" wall halfway through a good post.
What counts toward the 280
Nearly everything counts: letters, spaces, punctuation, numbers, and hashtags. The exceptions are the ones people forget: a link always counts as 23 characters no matter how long the real URL is, because Twitter shortens it automatically, and most emoji count as 2 characters, not one. A draft that looks short in your notes app can easily run over once emoji and links are in.
Why the counter matters before you post
Tweets that get cut mid-thought lose their punch, and the post composer won't let you publish until you're under the limit. Counting first means you edit on your own terms: tighten a phrase, swap a long word for a short one, or split the idea into a thread — instead of deleting a sentence in a rush and losing the point.
Trimming a tweet that runs long
- Cut filler words first: "just", "really", "in order to" and "a lot of" almost never carry meaning — deleting them saves 10–20 characters in seconds.
- Use numerals: "3" instead of "three" saves 4 characters, and it reads faster on a timeline.
- Shorten the link text: you can't shorten the link itself (Twitter does that), but a long hashtag can usually be dropped or abbreviated.
- Split, don't squash: if you're still 30+ characters over, the idea probably deserves a two-tweet thread — a clean break beats a crammed post.
Threads and replies
Each tweet in a thread gets its own 280-character budget, and replies count the same way. Counting each part separately keeps threads readable: aim for one idea per tweet, and end each part on a beat that makes the reader tap "Show more".
Practical tip
Draft at 270 characters, not 280. Leaving a 10-character buffer means you can add a hashtag or fix a typo at the last second without re-editing the whole post.