Contador de bytes
Paste text and see its byte size in UTF-8, UTF-16, and ASCII. Great for checking database column limits.
Results
How It Works
- Enter or paste text: Type or paste any text into the input field.
- View byte counts: The tool instantly shows the byte count in UTF-8, UTF-16, ASCII, and other encodings side by side.
- Check limits: Compare the byte count against common limits (SMS: 160 chars, HTTP headers: 8 KB, database fields, etc.) to see if your content fits.
Why Use Byte Counter?
Character count and byte count are not the same. A single emoji can be 4 bytes in UTF-8. Chinese and Arabic characters take 2-3 bytes each. Many systems enforce byte limits, not character limits — including MySQL VARCHAR fields, Redis values, HTTP headers, SMS messages, and cloud storage object names. The Byte Counter reveals the actual byte size of your text in each encoding so you can stay within system constraints.
Features
- Multiple encoding sizes: Shows byte counts for UTF-8, UTF-16 LE/BE, UTF-32, and Latin-1.
- Character breakdown: Counts total characters, Unicode code points, and multi-byte characters separately.
- Common limit presets: Compare against SMS (160), tweet (280), meta description (160), MySQL VARCHAR limits, and more.
- Live updates: Byte count updates in real time as you type.
- Encoding comparison: See which encoding is most compact for your specific text.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my byte count larger than my character count?
Many characters take more than 1 byte in UTF-8. ASCII characters (A-Z, 0-9, punctuation) are 1 byte each. Latin-extended characters (accented letters) are 2 bytes. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic characters are typically 3 bytes. Emoji are usually 4 bytes.
What encoding do most web systems use?
UTF-8 is the dominant encoding for web content, APIs, JSON, and databases. MySQL and PostgreSQL use UTF-8 by default. When checking byte limits, use the UTF-8 column unless your system specifies otherwise.
Why do SMS messages have a 160-character limit?
Traditional SMS uses 7-bit GSM encoding, which allows 160 characters per segment. When you include any non-GSM character (like a smart quote, emoji, or non-Latin letter), the message switches to UCS-2 encoding, which drops the limit to 70 characters per segment.