# Character Counter: With and Without Spaces - Feldar > Free character counter for writers: characters with and without spaces, words, lines, and checks against X, Bluesky, Instagram and Amazon KDP limits. - URL: https://feldar.com/tools/character-counter - Site: [Home](https://feldar.com/) · [About](https://feldar.com/about) · [Blog](https://feldar.com/blog) · [Careers](https://feldar.com/careers) · [Pricing](https://feldar.com/pricing) · [Download](https://feldar.com/download) · [Changelog](https://feldar.com/changelog) - Machine index: [llms.txt](https://feldar.com/llms.txt) · [full site content](https://feldar.com/llms-full.txt) --- #### Character limits writers run into Each limit below comes from the platform's own help page or developer documentation, checked on November 6, 2026. Platforms change these numbers, so the source is linked. Where Limit How it counts Source X post280Weighted: most Latin letters, digits and punctuation count 1; emoji and Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters count 2; every link counts 23.[X developer docs](https://docs.x.com/fundamentals/counting-characters) Bluesky post300Graphemes, the characters you see. A family emoji or an accented letter counts once.[Bluesky post schema](https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/blob/main/packages/api/lexicons/app/bsky/feed/post.json) Threads post500Characters, with each emoji counted as its UTF-8 bytes, per Meta's developer docs.[Threads API docs](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/threads/posts) Instagram caption2,200Characters, with at most 30 hashtags and 20 @ tags.[Instagram API reference](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-graph-api/reference/ig-user/media) LinkedIn post3,000Characters. Articles have a separate, much higher limit.[LinkedIn Help](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a528176) Amazon KDP book description4,000Characters including HTML tags: bold the word test and it counts 11, not 4.[KDP Help](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201189630) Amazon KDP title and subtitleUnder 200Title and subtitle together must be fewer than 200 characters.[KDP metadata guidelines](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201097560) Google title and meta descriptionNo limitGoogle sets no maximum; it shortens both in results as needed to fit the screen. Put the point first.[Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet) Query letters and synopses are usually limited in words or pages, not characters, and each agent sets their own. When a submission form has a box with a character limit, set it as your own limit in the tool above and paste the text from your manuscript, so you see the count the form will see. #### How this counter counts characters A character is what you see on the screen: a letter, a digit, a space, a punctuation mark or an emoji. Most of the time that is simple. These are the cases where counters disagree, and what this one does. ##### Spaces and line breaks Every space, tab and line break is a character. Without spaces leaves all of them out, which is the number some forms and translators ask for. ##### Accented letters An é can be stored as one character or as e plus a combining accent. Both count as one here, the way X and Bluesky count them too. ##### Emoji A family emoji is seven code points joined together, but it is one character on screen and one here. X counts every emoji as 2. ##### Links A link counts its full length here and on most platforms. On X any link counts 23, however long it is. ##### Words and sentences The same rules as the word counter: don't and mother-in-law are one word, and Mr. or Dr. does not end a sentence. ##### Lines and paragraphs Lines are split by line breaks, so a blank line counts. Paragraphs are blocks of text, so blank lines do not. Text Characters here On X Code points UTF-8 bytes café (é as one character)4445 café (e plus an accent)4456 日本語3639 A family emoji12725 A flag emoji1228 https://feldar.com/tools/character-counter42234242 #### Worked example: famous first lines against the limits Four openings from public domain novels, counted with this tool from the Project Gutenberg texts. A short line fits anywhere; one long sentence does not. Opening line Characters Without spaces Words Fits Call me Ishmael. Moby-Dick, 185116143Everywhere Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Anna Karenina, Constance Garnett's 1901 translation776414Everywhere It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Pride and Prejudice, 18131169423Everywhere It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, ... in the superlative degree of comparison only. A Tale of Two Cities, 1859, the whole first sentence612495119Not on X, Bluesky or Threads; fine for Instagram and LinkedIn Dickens's sentence is more than twice an X post. To share it you would cut it at "the winter of despair" with a full stop, which leaves 286 characters: still 6 over on X, and inside Bluesky's 300. That is what most writers do with a blurb or a pitch too: find the natural stop, count, and cut the last clause that is not doing work. #### Writing to a limit without losing the voice Most limits a novelist meets are for selling the book: the description, the post, the pitch. Amazon's own advice for a KDP description is to aim for a paragraph of about 150 words with sentences that are easy to scan, well under the 4,000 character ceiling. ##### Write long, then cut to the count Write the description at whatever length it comes out, then cut. Cutting a draft that says everything gives a better short version than writing short from the start, because you choose what survives. ##### Cut in this order First the adverbs and the second adjective in each pair. Then sentences that explain what an earlier sentence already showed. Then names: a blurb with more than two named characters makes the reader work. Keep the character, the want, what goes wrong and the question the book answers. ##### Make the first sentence carry the book Feeds, store pages and search results often show only the opening lines before a "more" link, and the cut point varies by screen. Make the first sentence work on its own, then check that the text still reads well if it stops halfway. ##### Count what the form counts If the form counts HTML, as KDP's description box does, the tags take room. If it counts emoji twice, as X does, one emoji costs two letters. Paste the final text here, pick the matching limit, and leave a few characters spare. #### Questions about character count Do spaces count as characters? Yes. Spaces, tabs and line breaks are characters, and almost every platform counts them. The counter shows both numbers: characters with spaces, and without. Why does X say my post is longer than this count? X weighs characters. Emoji and Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters count 2 and every link counts 23. The X post row in the limits panel uses X's own rule, so it matches what X shows. How are emoji and accented letters counted? As one character each, because that is what you see. Some systems count the parts underneath: a family emoji is seven code points and 25 bytes, which is why the table above shows all three. How long should a meta description be? Google sets no limit. It shortens descriptions in its results to fit the screen, so put the most useful sentence first rather than writing to an exact number. How many characters is a query letter? Agents ask for query letters in words or pages, usually one page. Some submission forms limit a field in characters; set that number as your own limit to check it before you paste. Is my text uploaded or stored anywhere? No. It is counted in your browser and kept in this browser until you press Clear. The word counter keeps its own separate text. Can I count only part of my text? Yes. Select part of the text in the box and the toolbar shows how many characters are selected. Scenes CHAPTER 1 · 2,500 WORDS - 1 The last ferry Ada misses it on purpose and tells her sister it was the tide. - 2 A room above the chandler's The landlord asks for a month in advance and a name she does not give. - 3 Lights on the far shore From the window she can see the house she left, still lit at midnight. Draft Page #### Write the book behind the blurb In Feldar every page has an outline of scenes and a word target. Write it yourself with the scenes beside you, or press Draft Page for a first pass at the length you set. Export the finished book as DOCX, PDF, Markdown or text. #### Keep reading [Free tool Word counter Words, pages and reading time, and your length against your genre.](https://feldar.com/tools/word-counter) [Free tool Story generator A story start with a character, three turning points and a possible ending.](https://feldar.com/tools/story-generator) [Guide How to outline a novel A full worked example and a free template.](https://feldar.com/guides/how-to-outline-a-novel)