💬 SMS Tool

SMS Character
Counter & Segment Calculator

Real-time GSM-7 and Unicode detection. See exactly how many SMS segments your message uses — and which characters are costing you extra.

✓ GSM-7 Encoding — 160 chars per segment
1 SMS Segments
0 Characters used
160 Chars remaining
160 Per segment
✓ Single SMS — no extra cost 0%
⚠️ Unicode detected. One or more characters in your message require Unicode (UCS-2) encoding. This reduces your limit from 160 → 70 characters per segment, and multi-part messages use 67 characters per segment instead of 153. The highlighted characters below are the cause — replacing them with GSM-7 equivalents will restore the 160-char limit.
Character breakdown — ■ GSM extended (2 chars) ■ Unicode trigger
(start typing to see character breakdown)
Unicode characters found:
💰 Send cost estimator
Total segments sent
1,000
segments × recipients
Estimated total cost
£35.00
at 3.5p per segment
Cost if optimised (1 seg)
£35.00
if message fits 1 segment

📏 SMS Encoding & Segment Reference

EncodingSingle SMSMulti-part (per segment)Trigger
GSM-7160 chars153 charsStandard Latin alphabet + common symbols
Unicode (UCS-2)70 chars67 charsAny emoji, accented char not in GSM-7, non-Latin script

Common characters that trigger Unicode encoding:

😊 Any emoji " " Smart quotes — Em dash • Bullet point é à ñ ü Accented letters © ® ™ Symbols [ ] { } ~ ^ \ | Extended GSM (×2 chars)

📢 Running email campaigns alongside your SMS?

Email subject lines have their own limits — Gmail shows ~77 chars, mobile just ~35. Check your subject line cuts off in the right place across all clients.

🔍 Meta description checker → 🎯 Google Ads counter →

Was this tool helpful?

Also check your copy for:

📸 Instagram Caption 𝕏 Twitter/X (280) 💼 LinkedIn 🎯 Google Ads 🔍 Meta Description 📦 Amazon
SMS Marketing Guides

Write SMS campaigns that stay within budget and get delivered.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Character Limits 2025: Every Field Explained

Posts, headlines, about section, InMail and more — complete reference guide.

📖 7 min read Google Ads

Google Ads Character Limits: The Complete 2025 Guide

Headlines (30), descriptions (90), paths (15) and all extensions explained.

📖 7 min read SEO

Meta Descriptions That Actually Get Clicks in 2025

Length, keywords, CTAs — the complete guide to high-CTR snippets.

📖 6 min read

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about character limits and how the tool works.

A standard SMS using GSM-7 encoding allows 160 characters per message. If your message uses Unicode characters (such as emojis, accented letters or special symbols), the limit drops to 70 characters per segment due to the different encoding format.
GSM-7 is the standard SMS encoding that supports 160 characters per single message and 153 characters per segment in multi-part messages. Unicode (UCS-2) encoding is triggered by any character outside the GSM-7 alphabet — including emojis — and reduces the limit to 70 characters (67 per segment in multi-part messages).
Yes, significantly. Adding a single emoji to an SMS triggers Unicode (UCS-2) encoding, which reduces your character limit from 160 to 70 per segment. This can turn a single SMS into a 2-segment message, doubling your send cost. Our SMS counter highlights exactly which characters trigger Unicode encoding.
When an SMS exceeds the single-message limit (160 chars for GSM-7, 70 for Unicode), it becomes a multi-part or concatenated SMS. Multi-part GSM-7 messages use 153 characters per segment (7 chars are used for the header). Multi-part Unicode messages use 67 characters per segment. Each segment is billed as a separate SMS.
Common characters that force Unicode encoding include: any emoji, smart quotes (“”‘’), em dashes (—), bullet points (•), accented letters (é, à, ñ, ü), copyright symbols (©, ®, ™), and any non-Latin scripts. Extended GSM characters like [ ] { } ~ ^ \ | each count as 2 characters but do not trigger Unicode.