Character & Byte Counter
Count characters, words, and UTF-8 / EUC-KR bytes in real time.
What is Character & Byte Counter?
Character & Byte Counter counts characters, words, lines, and bytes in real time as you type — a free online character counter that runs in your browser. It shows both UTF-8 and EUC-KR byte sizes, which matters for Korean forms like résumés and cover letters that cap input by bytes (a Korean character is 2–3 bytes).
Key features
- Live counts: characters, no-space characters, words, and lines
- UTF-8 byte count — one Korean character is 3 bytes
- EUC-KR byte count used by many Korean forms
- Counts characters by code point for accuracy
How to count characters and bytes
Most length limits fall into one of two families: character limits (an X/Twitter post, an SEO meta description, an SMS) and byte limits (Korean online forms, database columns). This counter shows both at once, updating live as you type, so you can trim to whichever ceiling actually applies to you. Nothing is sent anywhere — it's a local string calculation in your browser.
The six live metrics
- Characters — counted by Unicode code point, not by UTF-16 unit, so accented letters and most symbols count as one.
- Characters (no spaces) — the same count with all whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines) removed.
- Bytes (UTF-8) — the web and database standard: ASCII is 1 byte, a Korean or CJK character is 3 bytes, most emoji are 4.
- Bytes (EUC-KR) — the legacy Korean encoding many older forms still cap by: ASCII 1 byte, everything else 2 bytes.
- Words — whitespace-separated tokens.
- Lines — the number of lines, counted by newline breaks.
Characters vs. bytes: where they diverge
Counting by code point is why an emoji behaves oddly. A thumbs-up 👍 counts as 1 character but takes 4 UTF-8 bytes, and a flag like 🇰🇷 counts as 2 characters, because it's built from two regional-indicator code points joined together. For plain English the character and byte counts move together; the moment you add Korean, symbols, or emoji they separate, which is exactly when a byte-capped form starts rejecting text that "looks" short enough.
Why the EUC-KR count matters in Korea
Korean résumés (이력서) and cover letters (자기소개서) on job portals frequently cap fields by EUC-KR bytes, where each Korean syllable is 2 bytes rather than the 3 it takes in UTF-8. A 1,000-byte EUC-KR field therefore holds about 500 Korean characters. Note that the EUC-KR figure here is an approximation — it treats every non-ASCII character as 2 bytes, which matches Korean text but isn't a real encode of characters outside the EUC-KR set. If a form says "bytes" without specifying, check both numbers against its limit.
A caveat on the word count
Words are counted by splitting on whitespace, which is correct for English and other space-delimited languages. It under-counts Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, where words aren't separated by spaces — a full Korean sentence with no spaces registers as a single "word." Use the character or byte figures for those languages, and reach for the word count when you're writing in English or hitting a word-based limit like an essay minimum.
Which number do you actually need?
A quick guide: an SEO meta description targets roughly 155–160 characters; an X/Twitter post caps at 280 characters; an SMS fits 160 characters in the basic (GSM) alphabet before it splits into multiple messages. Korean job-application fields almost always mean bytes — usually EUC-KR. The no-spaces figure is handy when a limit counts only visible characters, and the counter updates on every keystroke so you can trim to the exact edge of whichever ceiling applies.
Frequently asked questions
- How many bytes is one Korean character?
- In UTF-8 a Korean syllable is 3 bytes, while in EUC-KR it's 2 bytes; ASCII letters are 1 byte in both. This tool shows both counts at once because many Korean job-application forms cap fields by EUC-KR bytes, where a 1,000-byte limit holds about 500 Korean characters.
- Why does an emoji count as more than one character?
- Characters are counted by Unicode code point. A thumbs-up counts as 1 character but takes 4 UTF-8 bytes, and a flag emoji counts as 2 characters because it's built from two regional-indicator code points. This is why the character and byte figures separate as soon as you add emoji or symbols.
- Is the word count accurate for Korean or Chinese?
- No. Words are counted by splitting on spaces, which is correct for English but under-counts Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, where words aren't separated by spaces. A full Korean sentence with no spaces registers as a single word, so use the character or byte counts for those languages.
- Does the byte count include line breaks?
- Yes. The counters run on the exact text in the box, so a newline is a real character that adds to the UTF-8 byte total (one byte each). If a form's byte limit seems tighter than expected, extra blank lines and trailing spaces are a common culprit.
- Is the EUC-KR figure exact?
- It's a close approximation: ASCII counts as 1 byte and everything else as 2, which matches Korean text but doesn't truly encode characters that fall outside the EUC-KR set. For standard Korean and English input it lines up with what byte-capped forms measure. When a form just says 'bytes,' compare your text against both the UTF-8 and EUC-KR numbers.
Privacy
Counting characters, words, and bytes is a local string operation; the text you type is never sent anywhere.