SMS Character & Segment Counter
Count characters and SMS segments for a text message, detecting GSM-7 vs UCS-2 encoding.
Every calculation runs locally in your browser. Checks the GSM-7 basic character set only — it doesn't account for extended-table characters that some carriers count as two characters instead of one.
Characters
59
Encoding
GSM-7
160 / 153 per segment
Segments
1
For informational and educational purposes only — not professional or technical advice, and not a substitute for consulting a qualified professional about your specific situation. TrueMeasureKit is not liable for decisions made based on these results. See our Terms of Service.
Why one emoji can double your message cost
SMS was designed around GSM-7, a 7-bit character set covering plain Latin text — a single message using only those characters fits 160 of them. The moment a message contains anything outside that set (an emoji, most non-Latin scripts, even a "smart quote" pasted from a word processor), the entire message switches to UCS-2 encoding, which uses 16 bits per character and drops the limit to 70. Since SMS providers typically bill per segment, a message that looks nearly identical in length can cost twice as many segments purely because of one stray character.
Frequently asked questions
Why does using one emoji or accented character shrink my character limit?
Standard SMS uses GSM-7 encoding, allowing 160 characters per segment. Including even one character outside that limited alphabet (most emoji, many accented letters, non-Latin scripts) switches the whole message to UCS-2 encoding, which drops the limit to just 70 characters per segment.