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How to count characters in a cell in Excel and Google Sheets
Excel & Google Sheets
=LEN(A2)✓
Verified example
Computed by a real spreadsheet engine on the sample data below.
| Text |
| Hello World |
| FormulaCraft |
| Excel 365 |
| Go |
| Spreadsheet tips |
=LEN(A2)→11
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Step by step
- 1Click the cell where you want the character count to appear.
- 2Type =LEN(.
- 3Click or type the cell reference containing the text, e.g. A2.
- 4Close the parenthesis and press Enter.
- 5To count characters across multiple cells, wrap LEN in SUMPRODUCT: =SUMPRODUCT(LEN(A2:A6)).
Tips
- LEN counts spaces as characters. Use LEN(TRIM(A2)) to ignore leading/trailing spaces.
- LEN counts all Unicode characters including emoji — each emoji typically counts as 1 or 2 depending on the character.
- To count characters excluding a specific character, use LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"a","")).
- LEN returns 0 for an empty cell and works on numbers too (treats them as text).
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Frequently asked
Does LEN count spaces?
Yes. Every space is counted as one character. Wrap in TRIM to remove leading and trailing spaces before counting.
How do I count characters in a range of cells?
Use =SUMPRODUCT(LEN(A2:A6)) to sum character lengths across a range.