Text Truncator
Truncate text to a character, word or byte limit at a word, sentence or grapheme boundary, with an ellipsis, and see exactly how much was cut and why the byte count differs.
Last reviewed by the Radiatus Cloud team
Need this done properly for your business?
Radiatus delivers secure cloud, DevOps & compliance engineering.
Characters, bytes and what users see are three different counts
A database column declared as varchar 255 usually limits bytes, not characters. In UTF-8 an ASCII letter is one byte, most accented Latin and Greek letters are two, most CJK characters are three, and emoji are four. A 255 character string of Japanese is 765 bytes and will not fit. Meanwhile JavaScript string length counts UTF-16 code units, so an emoji counts as two and a flag emoji as four, which is why naive truncation can cut an emoji in half and produce a replacement character.
Where to cut
Cutting at the exact limit leaves a partial word, which looks like an error rather than a summary. Cutting at the last word boundary before the limit is the usual answer for meta descriptions, previews and card titles. Cutting at the last sentence boundary produces something that reads as complete and can lose considerably more text. Whichever boundary you choose, the ellipsis or suffix must be counted against the limit, since a truncation that ends up one character over the limit has failed.
Common limits worth knowing
Search result titles are cut around 60 characters and meta descriptions around 160, though both are actually measured in pixels rather than characters, so a wide title in capitals is cut sooner. Open Graph titles show around 88, and posts on most social platforms have their own hard limits. These are display conventions rather than technical limits, and the pixel measurement is why two titles of the same length are truncated differently.
Related tools
- Emoji Picker & Copier — Browse, search, and copy emojis by category. Collect multiple emojis and copy them all at once. Recently used emojis saved locally.
- Text to Speech Player — Convert text to natural speech using the Web Speech API. Adjustable voice, speed, pitch, and volume with playback controls.
- Speech to Text Transcriber — Transcribe speech to text using your microphone. Supports multiple languages with continuous listening, copy, and download features.
- Instagram Caption Generator — Generate Instagram caption ideas from a topic, tone, and optional CTA. Fast, template-based suggestions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the byte count differ from the character count?
Because UTF-8 uses one byte for ASCII, two for most accented Latin and Greek letters, three for most CJK characters and four for emoji. A database column limited to 255 bytes holds 255 ASCII letters or about 85 Japanese ones.
What is a grapheme boundary?
The boundary between what a reader perceives as one character. An emoji with a skin tone modifier, a flag, or a letter with a combining accent is several code points that render as one symbol, and cutting between them produces broken output.
Should the ellipsis count towards the limit?
Yes, if the limit is a hard one. A truncation that produces a string one character over the limit has failed, so the suffix length is subtracted from the target before cutting here.
What are the SEO title and description limits?
Around 60 characters for a title and 160 for a description, but both are measured in pixels rather than characters, so a title in capitals or wide letters is cut sooner. Treat the character counts as approximations rather than as thresholds.
When should I truncate at a sentence rather than a word?
When the result must read as complete prose, such as an article preview or a summary. It can discard considerably more text than word boundary truncation, which is the trade for not ending mid thought.
Privacy & Security
Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How to Use
Paste text, set a limit, and truncate cleanly at a sensible boundary.
Disclaimer: This tool is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Results are for educational and utility purposes.
Related Tools
Emoji Picker & Copier
TextBrowse, search, and copy emojis by category. Collect multiple emojis and copy them all at once. Recently used emojis saved locally.
Text to Speech Player
TextConvert text to natural speech using the Web Speech API. Adjustable voice, speed, pitch, and volume with playback controls.
Speech to Text Transcriber
TextTranscribe speech to text using your microphone. Supports multiple languages with continuous listening, copy, and download features.