160 characters, or 70
SMS messages are encoded in one of two ways:
- GSM-7: a 7-bit alphabet of Latin letters, digits, common punctuation and a few accented letters (é, è, ü, ñ, à…). One message holds 160 characters. Some symbols (
€ [ ] { } \ ^ ~ |) come from an extension table and use two. - UCS-2 (Unicode): used as soon as any character falls outside GSM-7. One message then holds only 70 characters.
Long messages are split into segments that carry a small header, so each segment holds 153 GSM-7 characters or 67 Unicode ones. Carriers and SMS gateways bill per segment.
The usual culprits
A single curly apostrophe (’), em dash (—), emoji or uncommon accented letter switches the entire message to Unicode and can double or triple the number of segments. This counter lists the exact characters responsible. Replace curly quotes with straight ones (the Smart Quotes Converter does it in one click), dashes with hyphens, and drop the emoji if cost matters.
Enter your price per segment to see the cost of a send.
Worked example
Here is what the SMS Character Counter returns for its built-in example. Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
Hi Sam, your order #4821 has shipped and will arrive Tuesday — reply STOP to opt out. Thanks! 😊| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Segments | 2 |
| Characters | 95 |
| Encoding | Unicode |
| Cost | — |
Questions
Why is my SMS limited to 70 characters?
Your message contains a character outside the GSM-7 alphabet, such as an emoji or a curly quote, so it is sent as Unicode with 70 characters per message.
How many characters fit in a multipart SMS?
153 per segment with GSM-7 encoding, or 67 per segment with Unicode.
Last reviewed · How Textkiln tools work