---
name: Character counter
slug: character-counter
category: component
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: The running count beside a text box showing how many characters are
  used, or how many remain, against a limit.
aliases:
  - name: character count
    source: govuk
  - name: char limit counter
    source: community
  - name: remaining characters
    source: community
tags:
  - forms
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - helper-text
  variantOf: []
  partOf:
    - textarea
    - text-field
  seeAlso: []
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "GOV.UK Design System: Character count"
    url: https://design-system.service.gov.uk/components/character-count/
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: showing how much of a length limit is used
---

A character counter only earns its place when a limit is real and tight enough to
hit. Under a generous cap the count is noise, and readers learn to ignore it. The
counter is also an admission: every one of them is a limit the system could not
absorb quietly, so the first question is whether the field needs a maximum at all.

Two idioms exist and they say different things. "34/40" reports the state of the
field, and "6 characters remaining" reports the budget left. The second reads
better when the limit is short and the pressure is the point; the first is easier
to scan when the number is mostly reassurance. Whichever is chosen, it belongs
where the eye already is: beside the label or under the box, never across the
form.

The counter has an accessibility trap in it. Updating a live region on every
keystroke turns typing into a stream of announcements that drown out the letters
themselves, so the visible number updates immediately while the announced one
waits for a pause in typing. GOV.UK settled this in public, and the pattern of a
polite, debounced status message next to a silent visible count is the version
worth copying.

Near the limit the counter usually changes register: a colour shift, or the count
switching from used to remaining. That is a warning, not an error, and it should
stay a warning. The error, if there is one, is what the field does when the limit
is passed, and whether it refuses the extra characters or accepts and complains is
a decision the counter alone does not make.