Character counter for your text messages

The real count: the characters that weigh double and the ones that flip the whole message into UCS-2.

How many characters fit in an SMS? Rarely what you would think. Some symbols take up two slots, a single emoji halves the capacity, and a long text splits into chunks of 153 rather than 160. This tool applies the network's rules to every keystroke, without your text ever leaving your browser: true to the discretion of the service, nothing is transmitted or stored.

Your message

Characters: 0
Encoding: GSM-7
Segments: 0
Remaining: 160

Send this SMSThe sending form keeps the first 160 characters.

Your text stays in your browser. The calculation runs locally, in JavaScript, on every keystroke. No text entered here is transmitted to a server, nor stored, nor logged: this tool leaves no trace.

The rules that the network applies

160 possible symbols in GSM-7

An SMS carries 140 usable bytes. In the GSM 03.38 alphabet, a character fits in 7 bits, which is exactly 160 characters for a simple message.

Only 70 symbols in UCS-2

A single symbol outside this alphabet — emoji, Cyrillic letter, ideogram — flips the entire message into UCS-2, where each character weighs 16 bits. The cap drops to 70.

Nine symbols that weigh double

The symbols ^ { } \ [ ~ ] | as well as the € symbol appear in the GSM-7 extension table: preceded by an escape character, they take up two slots instead of one.

153 usable symbols per segment

Past the limit, the message is split and each piece carries a 6-byte reassembly header. That leaves 153 usable characters per segment in GSM-7, and 67 in UCS-2.

GSM-7 UCS-2 How to write an SMS that fits in 160 characters

Your most frequent questions

Q01Why do 161 characters make two SMS?

Beyond 160 characters, the message is split and each part gives up 7 characters to the reassembly header: only 153 remain per segment.

Q02Is an emoji counted as just one character?

Almost never: most emojis take up two units in UCS-2, and their mere presence already lowers the limit from 160 to 70 characters.

Q03Do French accents flip the SMS into UCS-2?

No for é, è, à, ù, ç and ô, included in the GSM-7 alphabet; yes for the other accented letters, which are absent from it.

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