What does a “character” mean?
A grapheme is a user-perceived character: the family emoji 👨👩👧👦 is one grapheme, but seven Unicode code points and eleven UTF-16 units. A code point identifies a Unicode value. UTF-16 uses two units for many emoji, while ordinary Latin letters usually use one.
The accented word Café here ends with a combining accent: four graphemes, five code points and five UTF-16 units. The visually similar precomposed Café uses four in all three modes. This counter preserves that distinction; it does not normalize accents or trim spaces.
Line breaks and links count too
CRLF and lone CR line endings are normalized to LF, matching the browser’s text field. Each LF counts once in all three modes, including a final newline. Spaces and tabs also count. The text https://example.com counts as 19 in every mode; links are counted literally, never fetched or assigned a platform-specific weight.
A useful length check, not publishing approval
The optional limit is your own positive whole number, compared only with the mode you select. Reaching zero means that count equals your custom limit. A provider may weigh links, apply its own Unicode rules, or impose media and account restrictions. These results do not prove a provider will accept your post.
Grapheme counting uses your browser’s Unicode segmentation implementation; results for newly introduced characters can differ between browser versions. Older browsers without grapheme segmentation still show code-point and UTF-16 counts.
Take the next step with your draft
Use the free content calendar planner to organize ideas, or explore the PostifyNow drafting and approval workflow when your team needs review and scheduling. This counter does not publish or connect accounts.