SMS Character Counter
Count SMS characters and calculate segment count with GSM-7 vs Unicode detection.
GSM-7
0 SMS segments
0 chars
0
Characters
0
SMS Segments
GSM-7
Encoding
70
Per Segment
SMS Encoding Reference
| Encoding | Single SMS | Multi-part SMS | When used |
|---|---|---|---|
GSM-7 | 160 chars | 153 chars / segment | Standard Latin + symbols |
Unicode | 70 chars | 67 chars / segment | Emoji, CJK, Arabic, etc. |
GSM-7 Ext | Extended chars use 2 GSM-7 units (e.g. €, {}, [, ], \, ~, |, ^) | € [ ] \ ~ | ^ | |
SMS Character Counter — GSM-7 vs Unicode Encoding
SMS messages use either GSM-7 or Unicode (UCS-2) encoding. GSM-7 supports 160 characters per single message using a 7-bit character set that covers standard Latin letters, digits, and common symbols. Unicode supports 70 characters per message but handles any language, emoji, and special characters. When a message exceeds the single-message limit, it splits into concatenated SMS segments with a 6-7 character header overhead, reducing usable chars to 153 (GSM-7) or 67 (Unicode) per segment.