CharLimits

SMS Character Counter

A single SMS holds 160 characters when the text fits the GSM 7-bit alphabet, but only 70 characters once any Unicode character - an emoji, an accent, a smart quote - forces UCS-2 encoding.

This counter detects the encoding automatically and shows the segment count, so you know what you will actually be billed for.

Last reviewed: September 7, 2026

Counted against the SMS Single SMS (GSM-7) limit.

GSM-7 and UCS-2 encoding detected automatically
Single SMS (GSM-7) 0 / 160

160 characters remaining

Multi-part messages use 153 characters per segment.

  • 0Characters
  • 0No spaces
  • 0Words
  • 0Sentences
  • 0Lines
  • 0Bytes (UTF-8)
  • 0sRead time
  • 0sSpeak time
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        How SMS encoding works

        • Text inside the GSM 7-bit alphabet gives you 160 characters per message.
        • Any emoji, accented letter or typographic quote switches the message to UCS-2, which halves the limit to 70 characters.
        • Multi-part messages reserve part of every segment for a header, leaving 153 characters (GSM-7) or 67 characters (UCS-2) per part.

        SMS character limits

        Character limits for each SMS field
        FieldLimitNotes
        Single SMS (GSM-7) 160 Multi-part messages use 153 characters per segment.
        Single SMS (UCS-2) 70 Multi-part messages use 67 characters per segment.

        Tips for writing SMS copy

        • A single emoji switches the whole message to 70 character segments.
        • Concatenated messages reserve a few characters per part for the header.
        • Replace smart quotes and em dashes to stay inside the GSM alphabet.
        • Count the segment total, not the character total, when estimating cost.

        SMS character limit FAQ

        Why did my message drop from 160 to 70 characters?

        Any character outside the GSM 7-bit alphabet - including emoji, accented letters and typographic quotes - forces UCS-2 encoding, which halves the per message limit to 70 characters.

        How many characters are in a multi-part SMS?

        Concatenated GSM-7 messages carry 153 characters per part, and UCS-2 messages carry 67 characters per part. The remaining characters are used by the concatenation header.

        Do emoji always count as two characters?

        Many emoji sit outside the basic multilingual plane and require a surrogate pair, consuming two of the 70 UCS-2 characters.

        Is the segment count the same as the billed message count?

        Usually yes. Most carriers bill one message per segment, so a three segment message is billed as three messages.