Write the full thought first, then cut it to fit. The order of the cuts matters: remove the sentences that say nothing, turn noun phrases back into verbs, replace spelled-out numbers with numerals, and only then trim single words. Keep the one specific detail that makes the text yours, because that is the part a reader remembers.
Every count in this guide includes spaces and punctuation.
Draft long, then cut
Composing with one eye on the counter produces cramped sentences, and it tends to cut the wrong things, because you stop writing before you know what you most want to say. A complete draft shows you everything you have, and then the editing is a matter of choosing.
Here is a first draft for an application box that allows 200 characters to describe volunteering experience. It runs to 415.
I would like to begin by saying that I have always been a person who is passionate about helping other people in my community. Over the course of the last two years, I have been volunteering at the Riverside Food Bank on a weekly basis, where I was responsible for the organization of a team of twelve volunteers, and we were able to achieve a reduction in the amount of food wasted of approximately thirty percent.
The next three sections take it from 415 characters to 149 without removing a single fact.
Cut the throat-clearing first
Throat-clearing is text that announces you are about to say something: "I am writing to let you know that", "I would like to begin by saying that", "As you may already be aware". It is the cheapest cut there is, because nothing is lost.
Before (81 characters): I am writing to let you know that the meeting has been moved to Thursday at 3 pm.
After (42 characters): The meeting has moved to Thursday at 3 pm.
In the volunteering draft, the whole first sentence is throat-clearing. It claims a passion without showing any evidence for it. Deleting it takes the draft from 415 characters to 288.
Over the course of the last two years, I have been volunteering at the Riverside Food Bank on a weekly basis, where I was responsible for the organization of a team of twelve volunteers, and we were able to achieve a reduction in the amount of food wasted of approximately thirty percent.
Turn noun phrases back into verbs
Formal writing likes to wrap an action in a noun: "carried out an analysis" for "analyzed", "came to the conclusion" for "concluded". Each wrapper adds a weak verb and a preposition or two. Unwrapping them shortens the sentence and usually makes it clearer.
Before (102 characters): We carried out an analysis of the survey results and came to the conclusion that prices were too high.
After (71 characters): We analyzed the survey results and concluded that prices were too high.
The volunteering draft has two of these, "was responsible for the organization of" (organized) and "were able to achieve a reduction in" (reduced), plus a padded verb, "have been volunteering" (have volunteered). Fixing those, and trimming "over the course of" and "on a weekly basis", brings it to 202 characters, two over the limit.
For the last two years, I have volunteered at the Riverside Food Bank every week, where I organized a team of twelve volunteers, and we reduced the amount of food wasted by approximately thirty percent.
Use numerals and symbols where the context allows
Numbers written as words are expensive. A percent sign replaces a whole word, and so does a currency symbol.
Before (88 characters): Twenty-five percent of the three hundred volunteers signed up before the first of March.
After (51 characters): 25% of the 300 volunteers signed up before March 1.
Numerals and % suit most contexts, formal applications included, and they make figures easier to spot. & and @ in place of "and" and "at" are different: fine in a headline or a note, out of place in a paragraph of prose.
The saving matters most where the limit is tiny. A Google Ads headline allows only 30 characters, so a spelled-out price is rarely affordable there:
| Headline | Characters |
|---|---|
| Free Delivery on Orders Over Fifty Dollars | 42 |
| Free Delivery on Orders Over $50 | 32 |
| Free Delivery Over $50 | 22 |
Back in the volunteering draft, numerals plus a few shorter words ("about" for "approximately", "cut food waste" for "reduced the amount of food wasted", "weekly" for "every week") bring it to 149 characters.
For two years I have volunteered weekly at the Riverside Food Bank. I organized a team of 12 volunteers, and together we cut food waste by about 30%.
Swap long phrases for short words
When the big cuts are done and you are still a few characters over, look for stock phrases. These are common ones, with what each swap saves:
| Instead of | Write | Characters | Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| at this point in time | now | 21 to 3 | 18 |
| in the event that | if | 17 to 2 | 15 |
| has the ability to | can | 18 to 3 | 15 |
| due to the fact that | because | 20 to 7 | 13 |
| a large number of | many | 17 to 4 | 13 |
| on a weekly basis | weekly | 17 to 6 | 11 |
| in order to | to | 11 to 2 | 9 |
| with regard to | about | 14 to 5 | 9 |
| approximately | about | 13 to 5 | 8 |
| demonstrate | show | 11 to 4 | 7 |
| assistance | help | 10 to 4 | 6 |
| additional | more | 10 to 4 | 6 |
Two other places to look: repeated information the reader already has (do not restate the question you are answering), and the weakest of your points. Dropping one minor point entirely is often better than shaving every sentence until all of them are thin.
Spend what you saved on something specific
At 149 characters, the volunteering answer has 51 to spare. Spare room is better spent on a concrete detail than on putting the padding back. This version explains how the result was achieved and comes to 185 characters:
For two years I have volunteered weekly at the Riverside Food Bank. I organized a team of 12 volunteers, and we cut food waste by about 30% by sending surplus bread to a nearby shelter.
It is less than half the length of the first draft and says more.
What not to do
Do not cut the one concrete detail. This version fits the box easily at 78 characters, and it has thrown away the food bank, the team of 12 and the 30%:
I am passionate about helping my community and have volunteered for two years.
It could have been written by anyone. If a cut removes a name, a number or a result, look for a different cut.
Do not drop spaces. Removing the space after a comma saves exactly one character and looks like a typing error:
I organized 12 volunteers,and we cut food waste by 30%.
That is 55 characters instead of 56. If the limit is stated without spaces, it saves nothing at all.
Do not switch to text-speak. This is 74 characters and keeps every fact:
2 yrs volunteering @ Riverside Food Bank. Led team of 12 & cut waste ~30%.
It is fine as a note to yourself. In an application or a message to a customer it reads as careless, and abbreviations that are obvious to you are not obvious to every reader.
Be careful with space-saving special characters. A single ellipsis character in place of three dots saves two characters in a form. In a text message it has the opposite effect: it is outside the basic SMS alphabet, so it switches the whole message to Unicode encoding and reduces the room you have. The SMS Character Counter shows when that happens.
Editing with a limit meter
A live meter turns editing into a series of small decisions with immediate feedback. On the Character Counter:
- Type your limit into the Character Limit field, or choose a preset under Check Against A Limit.
- Paste the whole draft, however far over it is. The meter shows how many characters you need to lose.
- Make the cuts in the order above, largest first, and watch the number fall.
- Stop a few characters short if the text is going into a web form. Forms can count line breaks and some special characters differently from an editor; the guide on how form limits work explains why.
- Paste the result into its destination and check the counter there. That one decides.
The presets cover limits such as an X post (280 weighted characters), an Instagram bio (150 characters) and a Google Ads headline. X is counted with its published weighting, in which an emoji counts as two. The other presets are counted in visible characters and labelled approximate, because those platforms do not publish exactly how they count. The platform limits reference has the source for each one.
Limits last reviewed: between and . Each row links to the source it was checked against. See the platform limits reference for notes on every entry.