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See how many characters and SMS segments your text message uses — and what pushes it into an extra segment.
Text messages aren’t billed by the message — they’re billed by the segment. A single SMS fits 160 characters using the standard GSM-7 alphabet, but the moment you include an emoji or certain special characters, the whole message switches to Unicode (UCS-2) and the limit drops to 70 characters per segment. If you don’t know that, a message that looks short can quietly cost double or triple to send.
Paste or type your message and this counter shows the character count, whether it’s encoding as GSM-7 or Unicode, and how many segments it will send as. Longer messages are split into 153-character segments (GSM-7) or 67-character segments (Unicode) because a few characters per part are used to stitch them back together. It updates live as you type, so you can see exactly which emoji tipped you over.
For any business sending appointment reminders, review requests or promotions at volume, this matters directly to your bill and deliverability. Keeping a message to one segment — and avoiding stray Unicode characters like curly quotes — keeps costs predictable and messages clean.
StandupCRM sends reminders and review requests over SMS for repair shops with this built in — this free tool lets you check any message before you send it.
160 with the standard GSM-7 alphabet, or 70 if the message contains emoji or Unicode characters.
A billable part of a message. Long messages split into 153-char (GSM-7) or 67-char (Unicode) segments.
An emoji or special character (like a curly quote) forced Unicode encoding, dropping the per-segment limit to 70.
Yes, free with no signup.
StandupCRM ties every call and lead back to the campaign that drove it — Google Ads landing pages, call tracking, and a CRM in one place.
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