How to Count Characters in a Cell in Excel

Use LEN to check ad headlines against character limits — count characters, see how many are left and flag anything too long.

You will learn to

• Count the characters in a cell with LEN
• Calculate characters remaining against a limit
• Flag text that breaks a limit

How it works

=LEN(A2) returns the number of characters in A2 — letters, digits, punctuation and spaces all count. It is the go-to check for anything with a length limit: ad headlines, SMS messages, product titles, meta descriptions or database fields.

Subtract LEN from a limit to see how much room is left (=B2-LEN(A2)), or wrap it in IF to flag problems: =IF(LEN(A2)>B2,"Too long","OK"). Remember that trailing spaces count too, so a cell that looks short can still fail a limit.

=LEN(A2)