SMS character limit: is my text 1 message or 3?
One SMS holds between 70 and 160 characters. Plain GSM-7 text fits 160, or 153 per part when it splits. A single emoji, curly quote or em dash switches the whole text to UCS-2: 70 characters, or 67 per part. € [ ] { } ^ ~ | \ each count as two. Paste your text to find the culprit.
- Plain: 1 each
- Amber: counts as 2
- Red: switches the text to Unicode
Parts apply to SMS (green bubbles). iMessage and RCS don't split at 160.
In Batchrunner 2.2, include {firstName} to open one conversation per person; without a merge token, a batch can open as a group. The app opens Messages for each person — you tap Send. Free for up to 10 people per send.
The short answer
One text holds 70 to 160 characters, depending on which characters you use. A text written only with GSM-7 characters (plain English letters, digits and common punctuation) fits 160 characters. A longer GSM-7 text is split into parts of 153 characters each. If even one character falls outside GSM-7, such as an emoji, a curly quote or an em dash, the whole text switches to UCS-2. In UCS-2, one text holds 70 characters and each part holds 67. Nine GSM-7 characters, € [ ] { } ^ ~ | \, count as two each. Paste your text below to see the exact count, and which character did it.
The limits in one table
| Encoding | 1 text holds (characters) | Each part of a longer text (characters) | 2 parts up to (characters) | 3 parts up to (characters) | When it's used |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GSM-7 | 160 | 153 | 306 | 459 | Every character is in the GSM-7 alphabet |
| UCS-2 (Unicode) | 70 | 67 | 134 | 201 | At least one character is not |
The 160 and 70 figures come from 3GPP TS 23.038. The 153 and 67 come from Twilio, because each part loses room to a header. Our counter never splits a two-unit character across parts, so long texts can need one more part.
The characters that quietly cost you
Every row is checked against the GSM-7 default alphabet and extension table in 3GPP TS 23.038, using our counting script. "Forces UCS-2" means one anywhere in the text drops the whole text from 160 to 70.
| Character | Name | In GSM-7? | Cost in a GSM-7 text (characters) | Effect on the whole text | Plain swap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’ ‘ | Curly apostrophe / single quotes | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | ' |
| “ ” | Curly double quotes | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | " |
| — | Em dash | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | - |
| – | En dash | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | - |
| … | Ellipsis (one character) | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | ... |
| • | Bullet | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | - |
| (invisible) | Non-breaking space | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | normal space |
| 🙂 ❤️ | Emoji | No | — | Forces UCS-2, and most emoji take 2 of the 70 | none, so remove it or accept 70 |
| á í ó ú | Accented vowels (acute) | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | a i o u, if the meaning survives |
| ê â ã ç | Circumflex, tilde a, lowercase c-cedilla | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | e a a c |
| Á | Capital A acute | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | A |
| é è ñ ü à ä ö ì ò ù | Accented letters in GSM-7 | Yes | 1 | None | not needed |
| É Ä Ö Ñ Ü | Capitals in GSM-7 | Yes | 1 | None | not needed |
| ` ° | Backtick, degree sign | No | — | Forces UCS-2 | ' and " deg" |
| € [ ] { } ^ ~ | \ | Extension characters | Yes, via escape | 2 each | Text stays GSM-7 but loses one character of room per use | ( ) for brackets, EUR for € |
| £ ¥ ¿ ¡ @ $ _ | Other GSM-7 symbols | Yes | 1 | None | not needed |
The surprise is in the accents. é, è, ñ and ü are in GSM-7, so "café" and "jalapeño" cost nothing extra. á, í, ó and ú are not, so "Adiós" or "José María" ("María" has í) switches the whole text to UCS-2. É is in the alphabet and Á is not.
What one character does to your text
Add one character to the end of a plain text and count the parts, per TS 23.038 and Twilio's rules, using our counting script.
| Plain text length (characters) | + straight ' (parts) | + curly ’ (parts) | + one emoji 🙂 (parts) | + € (parts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 100 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 140 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 159 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
At 140 characters, one curly apostrophe turns 1 text into 3. That's the most common "why is my text 70 characters" case.
Where curly quotes come from
Curly quotes, em dashes and the one-character ellipsis rarely get typed on purpose; most arrive with text pasted from a notes app, an email or a web page. On iPhone, the keyboard setting Smart Punctuation is one source. Apple's guide describes it as converting "straight quotation marks to curly quotation marks as you type" and double hyphens to dashes. The setting is at Settings > General > Keyboard > Smart Punctuation, and Apple says it "applies to other apps on your device that you use to enter text" (Apple, Pages for iPhone User Guide). Apple doesn't document whether Messages applies it inside a green SMS conversation today. A 2018 Daring Fireball report on an iOS 11.3 beta said it was "disabled only when writing a (green) SMS," and we haven't tested this on iOS 26 yet. Text you write elsewhere and paste is the safer thing to check, and the Fix button handles it.
iMessage and RCS don't use these limits
SMS parts are a carrier SMS rule. Apple says iMessage messages "go through Apple instead of your carrier" (Apple 118236), so blue-bubble texts aren't cut into 160- or 70-character parts. Twilio says RCS "sends messages up to 1,600 characters in length to a device without segmentation." The count matters when your text goes as SMS: to people without iMessage, or when your iPhone falls back to SMS.
Apple doesn't document how an iPhone sends a long SMS. Verizon says a text over 160 characters on its network "sends as an EMS," and may arrive as one message or several in a row. Your recipient might see one bubble or several, depending on their carrier and phone. If people tell you texts arrived broken up or not at all, see why some people didn't get your text.
Writing a text that fits
- Put the key facts (what, when, where) in the first 100 characters; previews cut off.
- Swap curly quotes and dashes for straight ones before sending.
- Leave room for names: "Christopher" is 11 characters where our counter assumes 8. The writer previews long names: write a personal text for everyone on your list.
- Start from text that already fits. Every GSM-7 message in our text message templates set fits in one SMS.
Before you tap the app link: this counter keeps nothing. Close the tab and your text is gone. Copy it first.
Down to 1 part? Save it so you don't fix it twice. Save the fixed text as a template in Batchrunner. In Batchrunner 2.2, include {firstName} to open one conversation per person; without a merge token, a batch can open as a group. The app opens Messages batch by batch and you tap Send. The ledger marks who's sent, remaining or skipped. Free covers 10 recipients per send, 2 groups and 2 templates. Pro is $7.99/month or $39.99/year with a 3-day free trial. iPhone only, iOS 17+.
Get Batchrunner on the App StoreBatchrunner opens Messages; you tap Send for each recipient.
What we don't know yet
- Some US toll-free senders get 152 (GSM-7) and 66 (UCS-2) characters per part, per Twilio. A platform case, not iPhone.
- Whether Smart Punctuation still changes quotes in SMS on iOS 26: it's on our device-test list. See how we test and source this site.
Questions people ask
Why are my texts green in a group chat on iPhone?
Green bubbles are SMS, MMS or RCS, which go through your carrier. Only SMS splits into 160- or 70-character parts. Blue iMessage goes through Apple and doesn't use SMS parts at all.
Sources (9)
- 3GPP TS 23.038 v18.0.0 (ETSI TS 123 038), §6.1.2.1.1 (GSM 7-bit, 160 characters), §6.2.1.1 (extension table), UCS2 (70 characters). www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/123000_123099/123038/18.00.00_60/ts_123038v180000p.pdf (checked 3 Nov 2026)
- Twilio, "What is the SMS character limit?" (153 / 67 per part; curly quote and emoji switch to UCS-2; RCS 1,600). www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/what-sms-character-limit (checked 3 Nov 2026)
- Twilio, "What is GSM-7 character encoding?" (escape characters count as two). www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/what-is-gsm-7-character-encoding (checked 3 Nov 2026)
- Twilio, "What is UCS-2 character encoding?" www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/what-is-ucs-2-character-encoding (checked 3 Nov 2026)
- Telnyx, smart encoding (replacement map). developers.telnyx.com/docs/messaging/messages/smart-encoding (checked 3 Nov 2026)
- Apple, Pages for iPhone User Guide, "Format hyphens, dashes, and quotation marks" (Smart Punctuation setting path; applies to other apps). support.apple.com/guide/pages-iphone/format-hyphens-dashes-and-quotation-marks-tanad45f9cce/ios (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Apple Support article 118236 (iMessage goes through Apple, not your carrier). support.apple.com/en-us/118236 (checked 3 Nov 2026)
- Daring Fireball, iOS Messages and Smart Punctuation (Feb 2018 report). daringfireball.net/2018/02/ios_messages_smart_punctuation (checked 3 Nov 2026)
- Verizon, text messaging FAQs (over 160 characters sends as EMS). www.verizon.com/support/text-messaging-faqs/ (checked 3 Nov 2026)