SMS Character Counter — 160
Count SMS characters, message parts, and detect GSM vs Unicode encoding live.
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Characters
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SMS Parts
Count SMS characters, message parts, and detect GSM vs Unicode encoding live.
Paste or type your SMS text. The counter instantly detects whether your message uses standard GSM-7 encoding or Unicode — triggered by emoji or special characters.
The sidebar shows total characters, SMS parts, characters remaining in the current part, and encoding type. GSM-7 single SMS = 160 chars; Unicode = 70 chars.
Messages over the single-SMS limit split into multiple parts — each billed separately by carriers. Our counter shows exactly how many messages you'll send before you hit send.
Our free SMS Character Counter tells you not just how many characters you've written, but exactly how many SMS messages you'll send. A standard GSM-7 SMS holds 160 characters. The moment you add an emoji or a character outside GSM-7, your message switches to Unicode encoding — and your limit drops to 70 characters per message.
When a message exceeds the single-SMS threshold, it splits into multiple parts. Multi-part GSM-7 messages use only 153 characters per part. Unicode multi-part messages use just 67 per part. Our counter tracks all of this simultaneously — live with every keystroke — so you always know your exact cost before you send.