SMS Character Counter
Count characters and segments, catch the characters that switch a text to Unicode, and estimate what a send costs.
Check your SMS provider's rate card.
- Characters
- 129
- Segments
- 2
- Encoding
- Unicode
- Left in this segment
- 5
Highlighted
Harbour & Co: your cart’s still waiting 🛒 Take 10% off with code BACK10 — ends tonight. harbourco.com/cart Reply STOP to opt out
- Splits into 2 messagesYou're billed per segment. Trim 59 characters to get back to one.
- Uses Unicode characters’ 🛒 — switch the whole message to Unicode, cutting each segment from 160 to 70 characters.
- Includes opt-out wording
GSM-safe version
Harbour & Co: your cart's still waiting Take 10% off with code BACK10 - ends tonight. harbourco.com/cart Reply STOP to opt out
126 characters, 1 segment. Curly quotes, dashes and emoji replaced or removed.
How SMS length and segments work
Text messages are sent and billed in segments. How many characters fit in a segment depends on which character set the message uses, and a single curly apostrophe or emoji can switch the whole message to the smaller one.
| Encoding | One message | Each part of a longer message |
|---|---|---|
| GSM-7 (standard) | 160 characters | 153 characters |
| Unicode (UCS-2) | 70 characters | 67 characters |
Longer messages lose a few characters per segment to the header that stitches the parts together. Characters such as € [ ] { } ~ ^ | \ are in GSM-7 but count as two.
The characters that double your cost
- Curly quotes and apostrophes (’ “ ”) pasted from Google Docs or Word. Straight ones (' ") are fine.
- Dashes and ellipses (– — …). Use a hyphen and three dots.
- Emoji. Each one switches the message to Unicode and uses two characters.
- Non-breaking spaces, invisible but common in copied text.
The GSM-safe version below the results replaces these automatically so you can compare the cost both ways.
Questions people ask
Can I use emoji in marketing texts?
Yes, but the message then fits only 70 characters per segment. For a 150-character message that's the difference between one segment and three.
Does the link count towards the length?
Yes, every character counts. Most SMS platforms shorten links automatically; check the length of the shortened version.
Do I need opt-out wording?
For marketing texts, generally yes. US, UK and EU rules expect a simple way to opt out, such as “Reply STOP to opt out”, and consent before you send.
How much does a text cost?
It depends on your provider and the destination country. Enter your provider's price per segment to estimate a campaign.
Related tools
Want this builtinto your store?
I'm Emmanuel, a Shopify and WooCommerce developer. If this tool pointed at something you'd rather have fixed for you (a faster store, cleaner product data, a migration, a custom feature), send me a note.
Emmanuel Asika
Shopify & WooCommerce developer, Dublin
I build and fix online stores: new builds, migrations, speed, SEO and the custom bits apps can't do.
Last reviewed 29 September 2026.