How many SMS will your message cost? Type or paste it below to count characters, see how it splits into SMS parts, and find the characters that quietly switch it to Unicode. Everything runs in your browser; your text is never sent anywhere.
How your message will be split
Start typing to see each SMS part.
Unicode forces Unicode encoding GSM ext. counts as 2 characters
How SMS length is calculated
An SMS can carry 140 bytes. How many characters fit into those bytes depends on the encoding your message needs:
| Encoding | Used when | Single SMS | Each part of a long SMS |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSM-7 | Only standard Latin letters, digits and common symbols | 160 characters | 153 characters |
| Unicode (UCS-2) | Any character outside GSM-7, such as emoji, Chinese, Tamil, Thai or curly quotes | 70 characters | 67 characters |
Long messages lose a few characters per part because each part carries a small header that tells the phone how to join the parts back together. Most SMS gateways charge per part, so a 161-character message costs twice as much as a 160-character one.
Characters that count as two
These GSM-7 characters are allowed but take two spaces each, because they are sent with an escape code: ^ { } [ ] ~ \ | € and the form-feed character.
Common reasons a message turns into Unicode
- Curly quotes and apostrophes (’ “ ”) pasted from Word, Google Docs or a phone keyboard.
- Long dashes and ellipsis (– — …).
- Emoji. A single emoji makes the whole message Unicode, and most emoji count as two characters.
- Accented letters not in GSM-7, such as á, í, ó, ú and ç (é, è, à, ü and a few others are fine).
- Non-Latin scripts such as Chinese, Jawi, Tamil or Thai, which always need Unicode.
The Replace with GSM characters button above swaps the common look-alikes for plain equivalents, so you can keep the same wording in fewer SMS parts.
Sending queue SMS to your customers?
Qtech’s smart notifications text customers their queue number and alert them when it’s their turn, so they can wait anywhere. Keep your templates within one SMS part to keep messaging costs predictable. Contact us for a demo. We serve businesses across Singapore and Malaysia.
