How to use the text by character count
- Type the number of characters you need in Length, from 1 to 20,000.
- Pick Lorem ipsum (Latin) or Plain English sentences.
- Choose whether the count includes spaces, and tick the full stop option if the text should end with a period.
- Copy the text and check the rows beneath it: characters, words and UTF-8 bytes.
Ready to copy: exact length text blocks
Each block below is plain Lorem ipsum with exactly the stated number of characters, counting spaces. None starts or ends with a space. The last word is usually cut short, and may carry an extra letter, because an exact length rarely lands on a word boundary. To get a different length, use the tool above.
50 characters example
50 characters including spaces, 7 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing
100 characters text
100 characters including spaces, 15 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut laboree
200 characters example
200 characters including spaces, 32 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut a
250 characters example
250 characters including spaces, 40 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure do
255 characters example
255 characters including spaces, 41 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor i
300 characters text
300 characters including spaces, 47 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillu
500 characters example
500 characters including spaces, 77 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing eli
Longer blocks: 1000 and 1500 characters
For longer field and payload tests, here are two more blocks, again counted with spaces.
1000 characters text
1000 characters including spaces, 155 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolor
1500 characters example
1500 characters including spaces, 233 words. Select the text below and copy it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrude
How the length is counted
Two counts are offered. Characters with spaces counts every character, including the spaces between words, which is what most form fields and string length functions report. Characters without spaces counts only the visible characters; the text is then longer, because spaces are added on top. For example, a 100 character text without spaces is 100 letters and punctuation marks plus its spaces, so the full string is longer than 100. The same applies to a 500 characters text counted without spaces.
The text is built from a repeating passage. It always starts at the beginning of the passage and cuts at the exact count. If the cut would end on a space, that space is dropped and the next letter is used instead, so the text never ends with a space. This can attach one letter to the last word, which is why the last word may look slightly off. With the full stop option, the last character is replaced by a period, so the count does not change.
Characters, words and bytes
A character count says nothing reliable about the word count. In this Lorem ipsum, 50 characters hold 7 words, 100 characters hold 15, 250 characters hold 40 and 1500 characters hold 233. Another text would give other numbers, because word length varies.
Bytes are a third measure. In UTF-8, as defined in RFC 3629, characters in the range U+0000 to U+007F take one byte, U+0080 to U+07FF take two, U+0800 to U+FFFF take three and U+10000 to U+10FFFF take four. The text this tool generates is ASCII, so its byte count equals its character count. If you paste your own text with accents or emoji into a field, the bytes can exceed the characters. To measure that, use the character counter or the string length calculator.
Common uses
- Form fields: paste a text of exactly the maximum length to see whether the field accepts it, and a text one character longer to see whether it rejects it.
- Database columns: fill a column declared with a given length to confirm that the full value is stored and that an over-long value is handled the way you expect.
- Truncation tests: check how a card, table cell or title behaves when the text is cut or wrapped at a known length.
- API payloads: send strings of a known size to see how a service reacts at its limits.
For platform limits, use the specific counters: SMS, Twitter and Instagram. For paragraph style Latin text, use the Lorem ipsum generator.
About the placeholder text
Lorem ipsum is a scrambled passage derived from Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum. Wikipedia says the words were altered, added and removed, and that the text has no significant meaning in Latin. Designers use it so that readers look at the layout rather than the words. The plain English option is made of short original sentences, for tests where readable text suits better.
Worked examples
| Example | Input | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 100 characters | Length (characters): 100; Text style: latin; Count: spaces; End with a full stop: no | Characters (with spaces): 100; Characters (without spaces): 86; Words: 15; UTF-8 bytes: 100; Lines: 1 |
| 255 characters, English | Length (characters): 255; Text style: english; Count: spaces; End with a full stop: yes | Characters (with spaces): 255; Characters (without spaces): 210; Words: 46; UTF-8 bytes: 255; Lines: 1 |
| 500 characters without spaces | Length (characters): 500; Text style: latin; Count: nospaces; End with a full stop: no | Characters (with spaces): 592; Characters (without spaces): 500; Words: 93; UTF-8 bytes: 592; Lines: 1 |
FAQ
How long is 150 characters?
In this tool's Lorem ipsum, 150 characters with spaces hold 25 words, and in the plain English text they hold 26 words. The word count varies from text to text, because words differ in length.
Is 250 characters the same as 250 words?
No. A character is a single letter, digit, space or mark, and a word is a group of them. The 250 characters Lorem ipsum block above has 40 words, while 250 words of the same text run to 1,611 characters with spaces.
How can I count the characters in a string?
Paste it into the character counter, which reports characters with and without spaces, words and UTF-8 bytes. In code, use the length of the string, remembering that some languages count UTF-16 units rather than visible characters.
Why is 255 characters a common limit?
One documented example is MySQL, whose manual says that the length of a CHAR column can be any value from 0 to 255. The manual does not say why that value was chosen, and other systems set their own limits, so check the documentation of the one you use.
What is the difference between characters with and without spaces?
Characters with spaces counts the spaces between words as well; without spaces counts only the other characters. The same sentence therefore has a lower count without spaces. Use the option that matches how your form, database or API counts.
Does a character always equal one byte?
No. In UTF-8 (RFC 3629) ASCII characters take one byte, but the letter e with an acute accent (U+00E9) takes two and many emoji take four. Text from this tool is ASCII, so bytes equal characters.
Can I get a 100 characters text without spaces?
Yes. Set the length to 100 and choose Characters without spaces. The result has 100 characters other than spaces, so the full string is longer than 100 once the spaces are included.
Sources and references
- MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual: The CHAR and VARCHAR Types: CHAR length 0 to 255; VARCHAR length 0 to 65,535 subject to the 65,535 byte row size
- RFC 3629: UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646: UTF-8 uses 1 to 4 octets per character; ranges per byte length
- Wikipedia: Lorem ipsum: Origin of the placeholder text in Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum