UTF-8 Byte Counter

UTF-8 Byte Counter

The UTF-8 byte counter counts the number of UTF-8 bytes and characters in a text. UTF-8 is a variable-width encoding where different characters require different numbers of bytes. ASCII characters use 1 byte, Latin umlauts use 2 bytes, and emojis use 4 bytes. The counter shows you the exact byte count and character count. The converter works locally in your browser.

How it works

UTF-8 uses variable byte counts depending on the character. ASCII characters in the range 0 to 127 require exactly 1 byte. Letters with diacritics such as ä, ö, ü, or é require 2 bytes. Characters from the Greek or Cyrillic scripts also require 2 bytes. Emojis and characters from Asian writing systems require 4 bytes. For example, the word "Hällo" has 5 characters and requires 6 bytes because ä needs 2 bytes. An emoji-heavy text can require significantly more bytes than characters.

What the tool can and cannot do

The counter can determine the number of UTF-8 bytes and characters in a text. It shows the exact byte count per character and the total sum. However, it cannot determine the actual file size on disk because filesystem overhead is not considered. This tool is a pure text analysis utility.

Why local processing in the browser

All calculations happen locally in your browser. Your text inputs are never sent to a server. There is no upload and no server log files. You need neither an account nor a registration. After the page loads, the counter works offline too. There is no server that could be attacked and nothing is transmitted over the network. You can analyze texts as often as you like.

Frequently asked questions