counter-word

SMS Character Counter — 160 Character Text Limit

A single SMS holds 160 characters. Add one emoji or accented letter and the whole message drops to 70.

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Numbers appear here once you add text.

160, or 70

SMS encodes text using a 7-bit alphabet called GSM-7, which fits 160 characters in one message. That alphabet covers basic Latin letters, digits and common punctuation.

Any character outside it: an emoji, an accented letter such as é, a curly apostrophe pasted from a word processor — forces the whole message into 16-bit UCS-2 encoding, which fits only 70 characters. A single smart quote can therefore turn a one-part message into a three-part one.

Multipart messages cost more than you think

Messages longer than the limit are split and reassembled on the recipient's phone. Splitting adds a header to each part, so the per-part allowance drops to 153 characters in GSM-7 and 67 in UCS-2.

Each part is billed separately by most providers. A 300-character message is two parts; the same message with one emoji is five.

Limits for every other platform are collected under social media character counters.

This is where emoji do real damage. A single one switches the message to 16-bit encoding and cuts your allowance from 160 characters to 70, which can turn a one-part message into three.

Common questions

How many characters is one text message?

160 using the standard GSM-7 alphabet. If the message contains any character outside that set — including most emoji and accented letters: the limit drops to 70.

Why does one emoji make my message so much longer?

Because it forces the entire message into a 16-bit encoding. Every character then takes twice the space, so the whole message is capped at 70 rather than 160.

What counts as a multipart message?

Anything over the single-message limit. Concatenation headers reduce the allowance to 153 characters per part in GSM-7 and 67 in UCS-2, and each part is normally billed separately.

Other platform limits