String Inspector (Unicode & Bytes)
Inspect a string's length, encoding and every character's code point — 100% in your browser.
About String Inspector (Unicode & Bytes)
Paste a string to see exactly what it's made of: the number of Unicode code points, visible graphemes (which differ for emoji and combined characters), UTF-16 code units (JavaScript's string.length) and UTF-8 byte size. A per-character table shows each character's glyph, code point (U+XXXX), decimal value, UTF-8 byte count and category.
It's handy for debugging encoding issues, invisible characters and emoji that take more than one code unit. Everything runs locally in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How to use String Inspector
- Paste the exact string, including whitespace or emoji, and compare length, byte and code-point information.
- Use the representation that matches the limit you are debugging, rather than relying on how many characters appear on screen.
Limitations and common mistakes
An emoji can contain multiple code points and UTF-16 code units. A visible character, JavaScript length and UTF-8 byte length are different measurements.
Text that looks identical can use different Unicode normalization forms. Preserve the original if signatures, identifiers or byte-for-byte comparisons matter.
The tool processes its input locally on your device. Read our privacy policy for analytics, storage and network details.
Why length looks wrong
👨👩👧
1 grapheme · 5 code points · 8 UTF-16 units
Emoji built from several code points explain surprising length values.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the character count different from string.length?
string.length counts UTF-16 code units; characters above U+FFFF (like many emoji) use two units. This tool also shows code points and graphemes so you can see the difference.
What is a grapheme?
A grapheme is a single visible character as a person perceives it. An emoji family or an accented letter can be one grapheme made of several code points.
Can it show UTF-8 byte size?
Yes. It reports the total UTF-8 byte length and the byte count of each individual character.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. All analysis happens locally in your browser.
For related tasks, explore Word Counter and Case Converter. Their guides explain the different inputs, assumptions and output formats.