Character Count With vs Without Spaces: What’s the Difference?

When an assignment, publishing contract, or web form asks for a character count, you must know whether they mean characters with spaces or characters without spaces.

Character Count Defined

• Characters with spaces (Total Characters): Every single letter, digit, punctuation mark, space, and line break is counted. Social media platforms (Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn) and SMS messages always count spaces.
• Characters without spaces (No-Space Count): Only alphanumeric characters and punctuation symbols are counted; whitespace is ignored. Professional translation agencies and academic word processors often use this metric for billing.

How Much Space Do Spaces Actually Take?

In standard English prose, spaces typically account for 15% to 18% of the total character volume. For example, a 1,000-word article typically contains ~5,500 characters with spaces and ~4,500 characters without spaces.

Check Both Metrics Instantly

Our free Character Counter and Word Counter provide simultaneous side-by-side displays of characters with spaces and characters without spaces.