Counters › SMS
SMS Counter
Live count with an encoding toggle: 160 characters per segment in GSM-7, 70 in Unicode. Segment count and cost implication update on every keystroke.
- 160 GSM-7
- 70 Unicode
- Private
- Free
How segments work
Carriers bill by segment. A GSM-7 message up to 160 characters is one segment. From 161 to 306 it is two (segments carry a header when concatenated, so 153 characters each). Unicode segments are 70 characters (67 when concatenated). Sending 300 characters in Unicode is five segments, five times the wholesale cost.
Writing rules for SMS
- Keep it plain ASCII whenever possible. One accented character in a footer can double the send bill.
- Curly quotes and em dashes are Unicode. Replace them with straight quotes and a plain hyphen.
- Emoji are Unicode. If the campaign includes one, budget for Unicode segments.
Related counters
280 characters
Live count with the t.co URL rule (every URL is 23 characters).
2,200 characters
Feed caption limit. Bio is a separate 150-character counter.
3,000 characters
Feed post limit. Only the first two lines show above the fold.
Threads
500 characters
Meta-owned. Longer than a tweet, shorter than a LinkedIn post.
Common questions
Does the counter know which encoding I am using?
Yes. It scans the input for any character outside the GSM-7 set and flips the encoding readout automatically. You can also force one encoding with the toggle.
What is the character that broke my segment budget?
The counter highlights the first non-GSM-7 character in your input. Fix it and the encoding flips back.