This online tool calculates the string size in bytes and character count for any given text. It supports UTF-8, Unicode, ASCII strings and helps developers understand the difference between string length and actual byte size. This is especially useful for database limits, API payload validation, and handling emoji or multibyte characters.
Character Count: {{result.charCount}}
Text Size ({{encoding.toUpperCase()}}): {{result.byteSize}} bytes ({{result.kiloBytes}} KB)
Detected Input: JSON String
New Lines: {{result.newLines}}
Optimize the text by removing unnecessary whitespace and formatting. This helps reduce size without changing the actual content.
✔ Text optimized. Size reduced by {{sizeSaved}} bytes.
We do not store, log any key you enter. This tool is intended for personal and educational use. We suggest not to use online tools to protect real production secrets.
String length and string size are not always the same. Character count refers to the number of visible characters, while byte size depends on how those characters are encoded. For example, a simple ASCII character uses 1 byte, but many Unicode characters require multiple bytes.
This difference often causes bugs when validating input length, storing text in databases, or enforcing API request limits. Always calculate byte size when storage, memory, or network limits matter.
If your data is Base64 encoded, keep in mind that encoding increases the original string size. You can encode or decode your data using the Base64 Encode Decode tool and then re-check the final byte size using this calculator.
UTF-8 is the most commonly used encoding on the web, but it uses a variable number of bytes per character. While English letters take 1 byte, Unicode characters such as emojis, symbols, or non-Latin scripts can take up to 4 bytes.
For example, the emoji 😀 counts as 1 character but consumes 4 bytes in UTF-8. This tool helps you accurately calculate UTF-8 string size and avoid issues related to multibyte characters.
When sending data over APIs, the actual payload size matters more than the number of characters. JSON strings often include escape characters, whitespace, and Unicode content that increase the total byte size.
Use this calculator to estimate the byte size of strings used in JSON payloads and ensure they stay within HTTP request limits, API gateway restrictions, or cloud service size constraints.
Database column limits such as VARCHAR(255)
are often misunderstood.
While VARCHAR defines the number of characters,
the actual storage size depends on character encoding.
In UTF-8, multibyte characters can reduce the number of
characters that fit into a column.
This tool helps estimate whether a string will fit into VARCHAR or TEXT columns in databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL, preventing data truncation and insertion errors.
A common mistake is validating string input using character count instead of byte size. This can lead to database errors, broken APIs, or unexpected application crashes when users input Unicode or emoji characters.
Always calculate string size in bytes when dealing with storage limits, memory usage, network transmission, or cross-system data exchange. This tool makes that calculation simple and reliable.
When converting data formats, the payload size may change significantly. You can convert structured data using the XML to JSON Converter and then calculate the resulting string size to ensure it stays within API or database limits.
Large text content can increase payload size, slow down data transfer, and exceed storage or API limits. Optimizing text helps reduce its size by removing unnecessary whitespace and formatting while keeping the original content intact.
This text size calculator also lets you optimize text online by collapsing extra spaces and line breaks. Once optimized, you can instantly recalculate the text size in bytes and kilobytes to see how much size was reduced.
Reducing text size is especially useful when working with JSON payloads, configuration files, API requests, database fields, or any system with character or size limits.
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