10 Best Character Counters In JavaScript (2025 Update)

What Is Character Counter?

Character counter is a useful online UI tool that calculates the number of characters that have been entered in a text field and displays the remaining number of characters allowed to be entered.

Typically used in Textarea and/Or Input Field element that limits the number of characters and shows characters used and remaining.

The Best Character Counter Plugin

This is a list of 10 best JavaScript (jQuery & Vanilla JS) plugins that make it easy to implement the Character Counter & Character Limit functionalities on your form controls. Enjoy.

Originally Published Nov 19 2019, updated Feb 27 2025

Table of contents:

• jQuery Character Counter Plugins
• Vanilla JS Character Counter Plugins

jQuery Character Counter Plugins:

Limit & Count Characters In Text Field - jQuery input_limit

A super easy jQuery solution to limit and count the number of characters typed in a text field (textarea or input).

[Demo] [Download]

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Add A Character Count To Text Field - Simple Text Counter

A Simple Text Counter jQuery plugin that adds a customizable character count calculator to text boxes like textarea and input field.

[Demo] [Download]

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Count Characters and Words In Text Fields - jQuery Counter.js

A lightweight yet powerful jQuery plugin that counts words or characters typed in various web elements including input fields, textareas, and content-editable elements.

[Demo] [Download]

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Textarea Character/Line Count And Limit Plugin - jQuery textArea.js

A jQuery plugin that adds live-updating character and line counters to your textarea element, as well as limiting the max number of characters and lines to be entered with a progress bar.

[Demo] [Download]

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Count Characters Within Text Fields With The char-count Plugin

A tiny and fast jQuery character counter plugin that counts characters within text fields and displays the remaining/maximum number of characters in real-time as users type. 

[Demo] [Download]

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Pure JavaScript Character Counter Plugins:

Character Counter With Visual Feedback – CharCount

CharCount is an ES6 JavaScript library that provides character counters with visual feedbacks for input and textarea elements.

[Demo] [Download]

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Minimal Character Counter For Text Field – dCounts.js

A really simple JavaScript library that displays character counter next to your text field and stops typing when you have reached the allowed character limit.

[Demo] [Download]

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Twitter Like Character Counter with Pure Javascript – VCountdown

VCountdown is a pure vanilla JavaScript library that displays a counter for your text field to count characters down as you seen on Twitter tweet box.

[Demo] [Download]

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Character Counter & Reading Time Calculator

A simple JavaScript-powered online tool that calculates and displays the estimated reading time (with character/word/space/vowel counters) for an article you provide.

[Demo] [Download]

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Countable

Add live paragraph-, word- and character-counting to an HTML element.

[Demo] [Download]

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Conclusion:

Looking for more jQuery plugins or JavaScript libraries to create awesome Character Counters on the web & mobile? See jQuery Character Counter and JavaScript Character Counter sections for details.