SMS Character & Segment Counter
Texts are billed in segments, not messages. One curly apostrophe pasted from a notes app can turn a 150-character text from one segment into three. Paste your message to see the real count, find the characters that cause it, and fix them in one tap.
SMS Character & Segment Counter
Your message
Start from a template (uses your business name)
How it will be split
Each segment shows up here, with the characters that force Unicode highlighted.
x forces Unicode · x counts as 2 in GSM-7
Characters that force Unicode
- Nothing to check yet.
Before you send
- Type or paste a message to check it.
What a send costs
Use the per-segment price from your texting provider's plan or invoice. Many add carrier fees on top.
How to use it, and why it matters
Paste, check, fix
Paste the text you plan to send, or start from a template. If the encoding says UCS-2, the highlighted characters are the reason. Fix it swaps curly quotes, long dashes, ellipses and odd spaces for plain ones, and leaves emoji and letters outside GSM-7 for you to decide on.
You pay per segment, per person
A plain text holds 160 characters. One character outside the GSM-7 set switches the whole message to Unicode, where a text holds 70. Longer messages are sent in parts of 153 (or 67 in Unicode). Sent to a few hundred customers every week, that difference shows up on the bill.
Permission first, then name and STOP
Text only people who agreed to hear from you. Say who you are at the start, add “Reply STOP to opt out”, and link to your own website instead of a public shortener, because carriers often filter those. Our email and SMS work sets this up properly.
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